Be careful what you wish for
by BlazePyro
Summary: Who could have thought a simple wish would bring disaster to everyone around him. A wish that grants release to an imprisoned creature that has been waiting to be unleashed. Is anyone capable to stop this unknown entity before it corrupt our hero? (Sonadow)
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note: Another improvment! I should probably continue the fanfic rather than improving the already made chapters...Well i try to improve it within my knownledge! No beta readers sorry! :(**

* * *

Sonic couldn't help but to grin, it was certain victory. As soon as he felt the chaos energy pulse through his body of the seven emeralds, he knew, Eggman knew. It was over.

Now you would think that a man with IQ of 300 would admit defeat. But the pride of the scientist was even greater than his intelligence.  
"Why don't you just give up already!?" The man yelled and launched the oversized robot fist at the golden hedgehog. Instead of countering it by a mere punch sonic dodge it in a speed of light. Why end the fight so soon, it wasn't every day you turned super. To be the most powerful unstoppable being for a short time was a moment to enjoy.

The emeralds had ensured victory, if the gems hadn't been available in this time of crisis he would have lost. Eggman Empire would have taken root and forever ruled the planet. Such thoughts did strike Sonic but the worry never hit him.  
Knuckles would call that naive, the gems had its limits and letting down the guard in such powerful form was still not assuring.

But who would worry after saving earth countable times? Or better yet the galaxy.  
"Give up? Isn't that my position to ask."Sonic chuckle and allowed himself to levitate above the floor.  
"Give me your best shot egghead."He taunted as he clenched his fists.

"Be careful of what you wish for rodent!" Eggman shouted before commanding his robot to fire out its missiles. Same this time Sonic dodged with ease. Instead of hitting the target it collided with the walls. The explosion wasn't pleasant, the walls couldn't even support the roof anymore and caved in. Not that this bothered the hedgehog, another time he do escape the area. Instead it was brushed off as little to no danger, reckless might be the word for it. But the seven emeralds certainly wouldn't allow the wielder to perish by something so trivial nor would the hog.

So with a cocky smirk he faced the looming ceiling that was crashing down and delivered countless of punches sending the roof into million pieces. The particles almost seemed to shimmer in the natural light that now entered the battlefield.

The humans jaw dropped down to the cockpit floor upon witnessing the power of the seven emeralds that should be considered as monstrosity. The man grew outrageous knowing the hedgehog was holding back.

"Looks like I saved your ass egghead. Oh and you should learn how to aim that." 'Oh yes rub it in' Sonic mentally chuckle as he saw the scientist boil in anger.  
"Fire!" The man yelled without warning as more missiles shot at the glowing hedgehog. Sonic shake his head with an amused grin before evading it.  
As expected they hit anything but the target. The empire started to violently rumble, it was falling apart.  
"What have you done!?" The man asked in shock as if it wasn't his doing.

Sonic couldn't help but chuckle once more at the question.  
"Sir,the building is falling apart I suggest we retreat. "Orbot pointed out.  
"I already knew that you piece of junk!" Eggman yelled at his robot getting little to no reaction from it. Either used to the treatment or programmed not to care.  
"Time to bail!" The doctor said before he took off ditching the destructive weapon with the egg mobile. Sonic sighed as the fun was over and he had once again saved the world. He teleported out from the falling empire and appeared several feet above the building.  
"Sonic 999 egghead 0" he chuckled and looked down to the area below.

He frowned, there was no signs of his friends. Sonic clenched his fists and felt the amazing power charge in them. He looked down at it and sighed. The form would be available until he either power down or naturally fade away.  
"Heh, I will just enjoy it while it last" the glowing hedgehog decided before he took off in the sky. The hedgehog passed tropical countries to snow covered land to cities before he landed on a mountain with great view of station square. He sat down and chewed on his chillidog he bought along the way. After satisfying his belly he laid down on the soft grass.

It didn't take long before his tense muscles relaxed and could get a further control of the super form. This was a practice the hedgehog repeated with the spare energy he managed to keep after battle. Sonic wasn't the one to meditate but he couldn't deny that knuckles advice of doing so helped. It improved the endurance and hardness the power he gained from the gems even if he only possessed one.

It became a second nature and the hedgehog was sure that in time would master the power better than the echidna himself. Although sharing those thoughts would enrage the guardian.

Sonic chuckled as he recalled the refusal of this meditating method. How knuckles convinced him otherwise was beyond him. But for once was glad he listened to the hotheaded guardian. A genuine smile spread on his muzzle but soon faltered as a raindrop hit his forehead.

The ruby eyes revealed only to spot the once blue sky covered in dark clouds. The drizzle soon increased and eventually poured down to his dismay.

Sonic let out a loud groan, he had quite a history with water. And it certainly wasn't improving anytime soon. Especially when it came to a large body of it that required the ability to swim. Something he still hadn't gotten a good grip on. In other words caused more harm than good. The weather soon got worse and poured down soaking his royal blue fur further.

"Oh man, I have too low energy it's not enough to fly down." He muttered to himself as he leaned forward to get a better view of the situation. His palms clenched the edge of the cliff as an uncharacteristic frown appeared on his muzzle.

The height was undoubtable dangerous and jumping down was out of the question. Then again he had fallen down from higher heights. However now the surface was soaked with water plus the only thing his eyes could spot was the thick canopy of trees. If it had been an open field he would risk it. His legs weren't made of glass and running at the speed of sound and beyond proved that.

His eyes moved its attention from the forest to the station square that was further ahead. He would have to turn around and get down the old fashion way. And to make it all worse WALK! The grass was now wet and slippery and a concrete road wouldn't be found in the forest. The cobalt hedgehog groaned once more as he didn't wish to go through the same "running on wet grass" experience. Crashing into a tree was preferable avoided.

With a sulk he moved away from the edge and crossed his arms as the energy was at its limit.

"I wish I could remain in super form that would make this easier." He muttered as his yellow fur was about to return to its normal blue hue. But instead of dissolving a powerful light struck him out of nowhere sending an indescribable agony along with it. Before his mind could register what happened he lost conscious.

Unknown amount of time passed before sonic finally regained awareness. Everything was a blur as his emerald eyes slowly opened to scan the surroundings. His head was pounding painfully while a spreading ache coursed through his limbs.

The once pouring rain had turned into a drizzle that sent a cold shiver on the fallen hog. Sonic groaned as he felt an unfamiliar exhaustion dominating his usually energetic form. It didn't take long before he perceived the situation but couldn't judge the reason of its occurrence. His vision eventually recovered and could get a better view of his body. What caught him off guard was his fur, it was still yellow! But it wasn't glowing like it should! Something was wrong definitely wrong!

Sonic forced himself to sit up and looked around, the mountain was almost completely wiped of woodland. The only thing that remained from the now flatland was a few bushes that hadn't gotten a directly hit. A fire burst must have occurred while he was unconscious judging on the black thick mass of dust covering most of the land.

Sonic however was untouched by this phenomenon to his relief. But what fire could possibly survive this weather?

Before he could speculate further into it he gasped as he spotted the seven chaos emeralds around him, they were completely drained. Their once beautiful color now looked dull and lifeless. He couldn't feel any connection to the emeralds whatsoever.

"But I am still in super form.." Sonic murmured and took a closer look at his golden fur. The energy was just as powerful as super form if not stronger but where did it come from?  
Before he could inspect any further his eyes caught something odd. It was awful dark which shouldn't be possible near a presence of a city. He turned his attention to the station square that was now completely dark.

"Power-failure?"  
Before he could investigate further a spike of chaos energy appeared behind him.

"Nice for you to show up...Shadow" Sonic grinned before he turned around to see the ebony hedgehog.  
He didn't answer but observed his counterpart before his ruby eyes turned to the lifeless emeralds.  
"What have you done?" He asked before he approached to the gems and picked one up.

"What I have done!?" Sonic frowned not so pleased of being accused of the state of the now drained emeralds without good reason.  
"I had to use the emeralds to take Eggman down! where were u anyways?!"  
"None of your business, so why are you still in super form without the emeralds?"  
"I am not going to answer that if you won't answer my question first." Sonic grinned as shadow frowned and tighten the grip of the chaos emerald.  
"I was not allowed to interact unless you lost. Orders from the higher up, they prefer you to save earth than me. Besides they don't trust me. Now answer my question." Shadow crossed his arms and glared at the other hedgehog. Not only was Sonic surprised that his rival gave him a full answer. Especially with more than two sentences!

Was this a new stage of improvement between them? In a different occasions Sonic would point it out adding a few taunts. But riling up his rival would end with a brawl which his already exhausted body didn't desire.

The thoughts of the answered question brought him back to reality. Sonic was semi disappointed that Shadow turned to work for G.U.N. Not only because of the past experience and history the dark furred hedgehog shared with them. The hero didn't quite understand the benefits but didn't dwell into it.

What he didn't appreciate was that Shadow wasn't allowed to help him from time to time. Like G.U.N was chaining him down. But then again during the whole alien incident Shadow had occasionally changed sides from Sonic to Eggman and Black Doom himself. After that fiasco it was understandable that a lot of people didn't trust him. Sonic shrugged it off and grinned to his rival.

"I don't know" Shadow growled at the lack of answer and took a tight grip on the golden hedgehog and pulled him up to his legs. Shadow tried to hide the shiver as he felt the strong energy affect his body. It gave him a pleasant sensation, it caused him to remain silently by Sonics side enjoying the flow of energy. It was different not the same as the chaos energy. 'What is this..' Shadow thought as he closed his eyes slowly.

"Shadow?" Sonic asked as the ebony hedgehog seemed to fall into trance. His eyes snapped open and released the hero.  
"Where is this energy coming from!?" Shadow asked or more like demanded.  
"I don't know! I already told you! There was this light then I woke up like this that's all I know!"  
Shadow became silent completely absorbed with his thoughts once more and crossed his arms.  
"Shadow you told me that you only interact when ordered pretty much right?" The ebony hedgehog hesitated but nodded.  
"What is your mission?" Shadow sighed and turned around to look at station square.  
"The whole station square along with a couple of other cities have a power failure my mission is to find the reason for it." Sonic tried to keep his laughter down but failed.  
"Is that what kind of missions you get!" Sonic burst into a laughing fit and put his hands on his stomach as it started to ache. "And what's next? Clean up the ruins of the empire?"  
Shadow gritted his teeth, it wouldn't annoy him if it wasn't true. His main mission had been to clean up the mess of the once empire but Sonic didn't need to know that.  
"Stop joking around it's serious! You are the reason this happened!"  
Sonic became quiet and scratched his muzzle in wonder.  
"How?"

Shadow facepalmed and groaned as he had to explain such obvious fact.  
"Whatever happened to you caused the whole town and more to shut down. An unnatural shockwave stole all energy and the loss was so great that it won't be restored anytime soon."  
"No more chillidog?"  
"No more chillidog." Shadow frowned as sonic started to run around in circles like it was the end of the world.  
Ebony ears perked as he heard a swooshing noise. 'Helicopter' his eyes widened in realization before he tackled down his rival and pinned him down.  
"What are y-"  
"Quiet faker."  
The helicopter came to view but they manage to stay hidden behind a bush. Thanks to shadows fur he manage to cover up the golden hedgehog as well.  
Shadow lightly groaned at the body contact again. 'That energy I want it...' was the only thought that repeated in his head. The lust for power was a trait from his alien side. But he was made by chaos energy and the mix of this new version set off a hunger he never felt before.  
The helicopter got closer and the armed men jumped down. "Sir the energy seem to come from that direction"  
Shadow shut his eyes and was completely unaware of the surroundings. 'I can take it...but it's faker...that pathetic Mobian...but I want it...'

"Shadow" Sonic whisper and groaned as his energy was drained by the older mammal.  
The ebony hedgehog shiver as the new energy mixed with his chaos energy.  
Sonic panted as he was drained and the blue fur returned. He didn't feel weak with the lack of super form just normal again.  
"Sir the energy is gone false alarm." One of the humans said. "Return to the base" was heard from the speakers.  
"Roger that" after that said they were gone.

"They are gone now Shadow...Shadow?" Sonic gasped as he heard the ultimate life form purr. Sonic lightly pushed the other off him and took a closer look. Shadow was indeed purring but not only that but smiling too!  
He had never seen Shadow smile before but it suited him. What could have possibly caused the ultimate life form smile?  
But even Sonic soon enough solved the puzzle.  
Shadow finally recovered and opened his eyes I confusion.  
"What happened?" He asked while still feeling an pleasant energy flow inside his viens. He blinked when he saw Sonics blue fur.  
"You are normal again.."  
Sonic grinned at shadows reaction and chuckled.  
"Well….you drained me. You took enough energy to turn me normal again."  
Shadow was speechless but it made sense he felt very powerful and excited, maybe even pleasured. He shook his head at the last part.

"You liked it" Sonic grinned and got a punch as reply. The cobalt was thrown a few meters away but skid a halt.  
"Ah, hit a spot did I?" Sonic continue but it ended there as Shadows communicator activated.  
"Agent Shadow...Agent Shadow come in."  
The ebony hedgehog gave the hero a last glare getting no other reaction than a wide grin.

"Yes what is it."  
"New orders return to your original mission"  
"Roger that"  
Sonic blinked as he realized that the emeralds was gone.  
"G.U.N..." The hero groaned and caught Shadows attention.  
"Yes they most likely took the emeralds, which is thankfully completely drained so it shouldn't do any harm...yet."  
Shadow started to walk away to the direction of his mission he certainly didn't want to do. This wasn't a mission for his standards, the ultimate life form clean up mess. And not just any mess the mobius well known hero mess!

"Wait where are you going!?"  
"I have some work to do" and with that said he was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Shadow sighed upon seeing rouge and omega afar at the remains of the once empire. He slowly approached the duo with thoughts occupied about this new power that was pulsing through his veins. Like he could ignore that, it was an enjoyable feeling and he badly wanted to unleash it.

'But how is it possible that sonic was still super when he owned it. While I on the other hand didn't...' Shadow stopped before the two and looked around.

"Are we the only ones here? Where are the rest of the soldiers?" The hedgehog frowned but already knew the answer but couldn't believe he would spend his weekend doing this.

"He trusted you to clean up this mess using your chaos powers." She shrugged not really agreeing that the ultimate life form should do such task. And who knows maybe he would get a different mission during the work and at that point already completely drained. But it wouldn't be the first time commander stretched his limits. In fact he rather enjoys seeing the hedgehog exhausted.

"Of course.." Shadow gritted his teeth in annoyance before he jumped up on one of the fallen buildings. He tapped his foot to see how concrete the material was and how much energy he had to waste on it. He knew he could do it with one powerful chaos blast but that would also cause him to temporary lose conscious. He couldn't just recklessly use his life force like that it could kill him.

Plus chaos energy also took a while to restore after being used. A chaos emerald would return it fast though, saves him the trouble. That thought made him recall its current lifeless state, and worse in G.U.N possession. So that certainly wasn't an option. The Commander would never give him those powerful items unless it was a life and death situation.

Shadow groaned and perked his ears as rouge gracefully landed beside him.  
"Can you do it?"  
"If I calculated correctly then yes, I can do it in one go, however would be too much for my body to remain conscious afterwards."  
Shadow admitted something he wasn't really fond in doing. But he could trust his fellow teammates, they knew how far his power reached and didn´t ask him to push himself too much.

"Yes I understand, I am sorry I can't help you." She answered, Rouge couldn't help but pity her companion more than she let out. Shadow has been working hard ever since he joined G.U.N. Commander never gave missions Rouge couldn't handle alone. But Shadow was always pressured to do more than his body should be able to achieve.

"So why did he send you?"  
"He didn't"  
Shadow mentally smiled as Rouge had decided to come for his sake. She was a loyal companion even friend which he refused to admit.  
"Then make sure you don't stand in my way."  
Rouge rolled her eyes at the comment and returned to Omegas side and patted him on his back.  
"Omega could you scan the area for him?"  
"Affirmative"  
Shadow turned around and observed the robot scan the empire. There were possibly loose wires here and there that could zap electricity, and most likely injure him if he wasn't careful enough.  
"Bzz..Agent Shadow should avoid the core of the empire 50% more safe if I eliminate the area"  
Shadow nodded and took off one of his power rings but suddenly stopped. He hadn't forgotten that new power, what if something happened if he took them off? It was meant to keep his chaos energy stable so he didn't end up using his energy at all times and possibly die. It was reckless enough to take them off for a powerful attack.

Could he take the risk with this new energy flowing through his veins?

"What are you waiting for blast the party." Rouge called making Shadow flinch surprised. 'If something bad happens it will be Fakers fault' he thought and took off the rings.

Shadow started to tremble as he got full access to the energy. It was like jumping into a vortex, everything started to spin around endlessly. It made him get dizzy and urge to vomit but he didn't show weakness in front of his team.

But that didn't last long and fell down on his fours as he tried to suppress the energy. He gritted his teeth together and this did not go unnoticed. Rouge returned to his side and called his name, but everything was in a blur for him.

He could feel her hand pat his back but it didn't help at all. Shadow started to heat up as if he had fever but he knew what was going to happen. "Rouge leave! Take cover NOW!"

The bat pulled back as she understood what was going to happen. She flew down to Omega in a hurry.  
"Omega! Activate force field!" She commanded and without hesitation the shield was up around the two of them.  
Shadow bit his lower lip but couldn't seal the energy it had to get out! He started to glow red and felt it zap through his body.

The pain was indescribable never had his energy turned on him. It was all Fakers FAULT!

Shadow clenched his eyes shut trying to prepare himself to what was to come. He screamed as it burst out tearing the veins in the progress.

It was easily ten times stronger than the original chaos blast. It wiped out the entire empire in mere seconds but luckily didn't break the shield.

The shockwave continued further and sent everything flying but didn't cause any severe damage.

Shadow on the other hand collapsed on the ground. His face was pale out of exhaustion and was sure his all insides were torn apart. Omega took that as a sign to deactivate the shield.

"Shadow!" Rouge screamed and ran up to him. Her ears perked at the sound of groans from her friend that was unconscious.

He had dangerous low of energy, his fur was burned off and flesh wounds were exposed. His head fortunately managed to avoid most of the blast. But she was sure he could die any second if they didn't act fast.

This was some injures you could see on a corpse and she tried the hardest not to panic. She was an agent afterall she had to collect herself and find a way to help him, an idea struck.

"Omega scan the area again we need to find the inhibitor rings!" She shouted to the robot that instantly started to search for the rings. Shadows life depended on it and he couldn't fail.

"Source found only two still function" Omega went over to the area and dug up the rings and handed it over to Rouge.

The bat put it back on his wrists in a hurry and gently pulled him up in an embrace and let him lean back on her. He lightly groaned in protest but remained unconscious. Rouge inspected the wounds and bit her lower lip.

"Why isn't he healing?" She asked as the wounds refused to close.  
Omega scanned Shadow while Rouge was trying to comfort the poor hedgehog.  
"40% chance to survive"  
"Omega don't give me status report!" She hissed and turned around to face the robot.

"Call G.U.N he need medical attention!"  
"Already done" Soon enough a helicopter appeared and two humans ran out and gently picked up the hedgehog.  
"We will take him to the hospital and give him better treatment. You have to tell us everything on the way." One of them said and looked over to Omega.  
"The robot can't come with us to much weight."  
"Don't worry sir he can fly along" Rouge explained before she joined them in the helicopter. She looked down at her teammate that barley was breathing.  
"Will he be okay?" The bat asked with pained expression.  
"Agent shadow has incredible healing capabilities, we can't know for sure. However his veins are badly injured and can't get the energy flowing properly. This can cause the healing to slow down. But it doesn't look like he has much energy to begin with. "The man said as he put on the breathing mask over Shadows muzzle.

Rouge bit her lower lip as shadow groaned behind the mask. He slowly opened his eyes halfway and tried to look around. There was so much pain, too much even for the ultimate life form to handle. The chaos energy wasn't flowing it scared him.  
"How are you feeling?"

Shadow flinched upon hearing an unknown voice and tried to look around but it was all a blur.

"What happen?" He asked instead confused of why he was so badly injured. Not even after the battle with Black Doom caused this much pain.

"You chaos blasted Shadow.. more than the whole empire was completely wiped." Shadow was relieved when he heard at least one voice he recognize.  
"Are you okay where is Omega?" Just then the helicopter finally got started.

Rouge smiled at Shadows concern and lightly pats his head.  
"We are alright hon, Omega is with us don't worry." Shadow wasn't much for body contact but this time it was actually comforting.  
She soon stopped and to his disappointed but didn't allow it to show.

"How bad is it." He asked since he couldn't quite see his injures and inspect them.  
"It's bad..." Was the only reply he got from the doctor he didn't want to reveal how awful it was, it could cause more distress to poor hedgehog.

"Will I die?"  
"Shadow!" Rouge snapped at the upsetting question. She already knew how little chance he had to survive. But he was the ultimate life form he could survive anything against all odds right?

"Possibly" the doctor admitted and got a death glare from the bat. Shadow sighed as if it was nothing but in the inside he was scared.

He knew he had sacrificed himself to save other lives before but that was different. His life taken away from him because of a chaos blast, wouldn't that count as suicide?  
He gulped and remained silent for a while before he closed his eyes.  
"No shadow! Don't fall asleep now! Wait until we get to the hospital."  
The hedgehog groaned as he opens his eyes again.  
"Don't worry everything will be alright."  
It was the last thing the hedgehog heard before everything turned black.


	3. Chapter 3

Elsewhere sonic was finally home and went straight to the bathroom without taking off his soaked shoes.

"Oh man I hate rain." He complained as he made a muddy trail. He took a dry towel and carefully rubbed it into his quills. After trying to put on the switch a few times he gave up.

"So Shadow was right after all." Sonic sighed before his ears perked at the sound from the basement. The cobalt mammal headed down the hallway to the basement. It was pitch black just a tiny light was seen further down 'great' sonic thought before he went down the stairs.

In the corner of the room he saw tails hunching over another one of his inventions. Sonic had assumed that his bro would put away his tools for now. But as usual he would find a reason to invent something. At least it wasn't with evil intentions. But that didn't stop it from backfire and harm someone in the progress. Last time that happened was ages ago so the hero didn't worry.

"Hi tails, what are you doing?"  
"Oh sonic you are back!" Tails jumped up to his legs.

Tails looked back to his machine in frustration as his mind returned to the current problem.

"The generator doesn't work I am fixing it or trying to." He muttered as his tails wagged behind him. The fox had been working on the generator ever since the power cut, so at this point was getting rather tiring. Tails went back to sit down on the floor and continue his work.

"I bet you can do it" Sonic smiled and sat down beside finding nothing else to do.  
Tails returned the smile happily that his bro believed in him.

An hour passed and Sonic was surprisingly still there keeping him company talking about the past adventurers.

Tails didn't mind in fact there wasn't often they just sat down and talked. Sonic had obviously nowhere to go as well, it was late raining and no electricity.  
But tails patience with the generator was wearing thin. "This thing will never work I have tried everything!" He frowned after a while and threw his tool on the generator.

"Oh wow, calm down Tails." Sonic chuckled and then suddenly like magic the generator started. The hero grinned as the lamps activated. "See you did it!" He ruffled tails head and heard tails laugh a bit.  
"But that was just luck! At least we got the electricity back." He stood up and brushed off the dirt from his knees with a wide smile.

"That means we can finally get something to eat!" Sonic gave a thumb up.

"As long as you don't cook we will be fine, remember when you almost blew up the oven?."

"Uh.. don't remind me" Sonic sulked, it was true that the hero of mobius could destroy robots turn super, fight alien creature save the world countless of times...BUT he could not cook.  
"The temperature in the fridge has been down for a bit, hopefully not too long." Tails thought out loud and saw his brother walk up the stairs.

"Don't worry I think its fine, but what about the rest of the people?" Sonic asked since it was a huge problem.

"Well I am sure they will be able to find the problem and solve it. In worst senior use the chaos emeralds for energy." Tails answer and joined sonic upstairs and smiled satisfied of how everything worked perfectly with the generator.

Sonic scratched his muzzle after the mentioned of the emeralds. That certainly wasn't an option considering how lifeless they were now after used.  
This reminded him of the unknown source of energy. Sonic groaned at all this thinking and decided to sit down in the kitchen.

Tails soon joined him and decided to make some chili dogs.  
"Hey tails..."  
The kitsune turned around to meet Sonics serious expression.  
"What is it?"  
Sonic sighed again as he considered whenever or not to tell his bro about the energy.  
"Well what is it?"  
Sonic flinched at the question and made the fast decision against it.  
"Could you make a two chillidogs for me?" The hero gave an innocent smile.  
"Alright." Tails smiled not noting the unusual behavior from his brother.

Sonic couldn't get rid of the thought of this mysterious energy.  
The hero was granted new abilities from better to worse in the past. For example his werehog form, the wisps, caliburn, darkspine and so on.

But this new power just suddenly appeared without reason! Even worse couldn't get rid of it. If Shadow hadn't showed up and basically sucked it all out he most likely would be in that form right now, no question about it.

The hedgehog realized he had been quiet for too long and didn't want to worry the other and spoke up.  
"Think the electricity will be up soon?"

"If they find the reason of it soon then yeah."  
Sonic rested his head on the table and mentally frowned. He was the cause of it or that's what his rival claimed. That meant it would take a while to repair the damage.  
Soon enough a plate with two chillidogs was placed in front of his muzzle. The hero looked up at his bro who proudly smiled of his work.

"Go ahead, I made it just the way we like it." Tails said also adopted the love for chillidogs thanks to Sonic. Or what Knuckles claimed it to be "a curse".

"You are the best lil bro." Sonic smiled and didn't hesitate but dug in.

* * *

At that point shadow had arrived to the hospital. Specialists in the chaos creation of project shadow, but not near as good as doctor Gerald himself.

Rouge and Omega been told to wait outside as he was taken to the surgery room. The bat had demanded to stay by his side but was told that it would only disturb the doctors. And the last thing she wanted was to be the cause of her friend death.

They waited hours to get an answer if he may or may not survive. Soon enough the doctor in charge came out. The green blood on his cloths was clearly from the ultimate life form.  
"I apologize I should have changed attire, but I have good news he will survive."  
Even though the appearance disturbed her she couldn't help but jump up from the chair and claps the doctors hands in her own.

"Thank you thank you so much!" She said and tried to hold back a tear.  
The man smiled proudly of yet again able to save another life.

"Thanks to his healing ability this was possible, he truly is the ultimate life form"  
"Yes oh yes he his." Rouge smiled as his title had proved to be real.  
"You may visit him soon my coworkers are putting him in a recovery room."  
"I want to see him now!"

The doctor sighed and shakes his head in disapproval.  
"I demand you to!" Rouge growled and picked up her G.U.N tag.  
"I order you to." She added. The man frowned but didn't have much of a choice.  
"You may not like what you see,but follow me."

The bat smirked and followed the human to the surgery room. The robot stalked after much to the doctors dislike.

They arrived and the man opens the door, and there he was the ultimate life form.  
Some few doctors cleaned him and were surprised to see the agents.  
The bat ran up to the hedgehog and carefully stroked his forehead.  
The fur had grown back and he didn't look near as bad as before.

Omega scanned shadow once again.  
"Survive rate 100%"  
Rouge laughed happily and nodded.

"He will be just fine." The bat agreed and wanted nothing else than to hug him.

"Miss, we are going to transport him to a room." One of the male doctors said.  
"I am going where he is going." She insisted although this time the doctors didn't say otherwise. They put Shadow on a more comfortable bed and gently gave him a blanket before moving out.

It had been a couple of hours since they got to Shadows recovery room. The bat had fallen asleep on the chair while the robot was in power save mode.

Shadow finally woke up in distress, he felt pain everywhere but not near as much as before. He looked around and saw his team in the room as well. He only considers them as allies but it still put a smile on his muzzle.

He noticed that he was only wearing two rings now. Shadow groaned as he felt its lack of presence and couldn't help but worry. They were made by Gerald himself and the other scientists on the ark but they were all dead. He gritted his teeth and pulled off the blanket before he slowly got off the bed.  
He took a few unsteady steps before he reached to the bat.  
"Rouge wake up." He shakes the woman lightly.

She groaned but soon opens her eyes to see the not too long ago dying hedgehog.  
"Goodmorning Hun, feeling better?" She asked not hiding her concern in her voice.  
"I am fine...a bit pain but nothing I can't handle." He rubbing his left ring with his thumb, and still could feel the leaking energy but not bad enough to harm him.

The bat noticed it and sighed.  
"Two of your Inhibitor rings didn't make it through the blast."  
"Did you keep it?"

"Yes they are here." She said and gave the hedgehog the damaged rings.  
Shadow slowly took them to inspect, they were cracked and useless as Rouge had said.  
The only person he could think of that was able to repair his rings would be Doctor Eggman.

Shadow considered whenever or not to ask for the doctors help. His ruby eyes turned back to the bat who was downright worried. She knew that the hedgehog depended on the rings.

"I will be fine with just two." He assured, this issue would provide him with stronger attacks but at the price of loss of endurance. Only time could tell how much damage it would eventually cause.

Shadow put the damaged rings in his quills but not without pain that zapped through his body. It caused him to back off and fall down on the bed . He felt like a mess, not to mention the quills wasn't even in shape, his appearance could rival an animal hedgehog. Shadow didn't bother to fix it his movement at the moment was even to clumsy to do such thing.. He did manage to spot a scar under the bandage that the humans lazily put on. Fortunately was already healing and it would disappear in no time.

The progress was tiresome since the energy was focused on healing while it also kept leaking out from the ankles.

Only good part was that it healed faster than normal though. But pumping out the energy to his wounds through his semi torn veins was painful. Even if the veins got healed in the progress.

"Shadow...what and why did you chaos blast that strong? You could have died!" Rouge said while she watched her friend rub his forehead before he looked back to her.

"Well I didn't and it won't happen again." If he told the truth the bat would have gone straight to Sonic and demand answers. Also blame him for the almost death of the ultimate life form.

First of sonic wouldn't be able to answer her question secondly he would get worried about Shadow, which would lastly cause him to follow him around in concern.

Sonic was the last person he wanted around. They could team up now and then. But that certainly didn't make them "buddies"!

He couldn't deny the hedgehog was skillful when it came to speed and combat. But not even that gave him a reason to respect the other. Plus their last encounter wasn't so giving either. So nope he would take the blast reason to the grave.

Rouge rolled her eyes to shadows typical reply.  
"If you say so."  
The door suddenly opened and a nurse enter the room.  
"Oh you are awake." She smiled and held her papers tightly in her hands. She was aware of whom he was and just like most of the humans she feared him. The woman had hoped to check on him while he was asleep but didn't have that luck.

Shadow frowned as he scared the woman even in his weakened state. Humans just didn't forget about his past so neither could he.

"I need to check on your wounds and perhaps change the bandages."  
"No need to" Shadow muttered and unwrapped one of the bandages.  
"The wounds have healed." He said bluntly avoiding eye contact.  
He simply didn't want her to touch him. Especially since her appearance almost was a replica of Maria. So to know that he was the scared her put a bad feeling in the gut.

"I see I will inform the doctors about your recovery." And with that she left in a fast pace.  
"She was in a hurry." Rouge giggled at Shadows annoyed expression.

"If only Sonic used his speed to leave me alone as well." He muttered not intentionally for the bat to hear but she did anyways.

She giggled again as the blue blur was mentioned. Shadow always gets grumpy when Sonic encounter him. Even cursed a couple of times to a point she thought he would seriously kill the hero.

Shadow had so many times in the past forced to take care of the mess Sonic caused. It was more of a vacation when Team Dark was fighting against Robotnik. That didn't happen so frequently though.

The government wanted him out of combat as much as possible.  
Shadow even learned how to avoid damage to his surroundings during fights.  
This made his fighting style become more graceful. All he wanted was to convince them that he wasn't there to hurt harm or damage the planet.

But his tries went unnoticed expect of Team Dark.  
Rouge picked up her G.U.N communicator which caught Shadows attention.  
"Why are you contacting them?" Shadow asked with a frown. Commander has sent him out on missions with injures before in the past. To get in contact with them now was like adding the torture.

"Commander wanted me to call him as soon as you woke up."  
Shadow gritted his teeth, he didn't feel good enough to even walk at the moment.  
"Agent Rouge...yes..yes he is awake..no I don't think he is...What do you mean!? There is no way you can do that! He won't handle it!...the contract?!...he was dying for crying out loud! Give him a break!...Ultimate or not!" She yelled loudly,it was definitely the commander she was speaking to.  
"You wouldn't dare!" She growled, Shadow looked at her with his tired eyes. All this yelling made his ears hurt, like it wasn't bad enough.

The only thing he wanted was some peace and quiet and rest. The hedgehog made himself comfortable on the bed while trying to ignore the bat. He could only hope for the best, but he was pretty sure it was a losing battle.

"You can't just do that!" She argued again and soon enough some G.U.N soldiers marched in to the room.  
Rouge growled and put down her phone as she already knew why they were here.  
"Agent Shadow you have to come with us."

This time he couldn't ignore it, Shadow sat up once again. He gave them a tired glared and got them to flinch in fear but refused to back off.

Thanks to Shadows situation he appeared to look less threatening.  
"I just woke up humans and I am not in a mood nor healthy enough to come with you. Tell the commander I will return when I am in proper shape."

The man in charge shook his head and walked up to the hedgehog. Shadow was shocked to say the least as the human dared to even approach or let alone grab is arm and pull him out from the bed.

He stumbled on his feet as it suddenly touched the floor. Shadow growled as the room seemed to spin. He couldn't even send a nasty glare at the human.  
"You have to tell him that yourself." The man spoke harshly and pulled him to walk.

"Let him go!" The bat hissed and stretched out her wings making the humans stop.  
"Agent Rouge you out of everyone should know that there is no other option. If commander says Shadow isn't well enough he will be free to go."  
"But I already told him he isn't!"

"He don't take others judgement, now step aside so we can bring him to the base."  
Rouge frowned but slowly backed off. She was certain commander would let Shadow rest when he saw him. But it didn't make it okay.

Shadow growled as the human yanked him forward to walk again.  
Omega activated and stopped their patch.  
"Update omega this is an order from commander."  
The robot got the message from G.U.N and didn't question their intentions. He allowed them to pass and the ultimate life form tried not to make a noise in distress. His ebony ears were lowered as he tried to walk in a slower pace but was yanked again to walk faster.

One of the doctors appeared and frowned upon seeing this. He was rather old man with white coat as normal doctors wore. In a weird way reminded Shadow of Gerald.  
"I can't let you take my patient he is not good enough to even walk!" The old man spoke but was shoved aside violently.

"Orders from G.U.N!"  
Shadow sighed as he was pulled again, he didn't bother to struggle. He was too weak to, instead he bit his lower lip as a whimper almost escaped. He squeezed his eyes shut as his legs were forced to move. The shoes seemed to weight much more and the legs ached like no tomorrow.  
The one in charge seemed to enjoy the pain of the hedgehog. Of course a sadist was ordered to pull him out from the hospital, reminds him a bit of commander.

They arrived to the elevator and the man stopped. He looked back to the weak hedgehog and grinned.  
"Let's take the stairs."  
"What!?" Shadow growled but was pulled towards the stairs.  
"What's the problem Agent Shadow? Can't walk down some stairs?" He mocked and the other soldiers laughed.

"Aren't you the Ultimate life form?"  
Shadow couldn't tolerate their insults any further and forced himself to walk down the steps on his own according. His body screamed in agony begging him to stop. The pain wasn't a joke and reopened the wounds as proof.

The bandages served no purpose as they turned into thick green alien blood. It trailed down his body until it hit the floor.

The chaos energy was stressing out and burned his veins inside out. While the stairs suddenly started to spin but he wouldn't give up. He knew it was all in his mind and closed his eyes and let his feeling guide him. The humans were entertained to watch the "Mighty Agent" walk down a few stairs in pain.

"Aren't you going to walk a bit faster? Here let me help you."  
Shadow gasped as the human pushed him forward. He lost the balance and tripped but managed to get support from the wall in the last second. The humans laughed at his pathetic state. It wasn't every day you got a chance to bully Shadow, and they certainly enjoyed it.

"If you do that again I will tear your hand off." Shadow hissed and they only laughed more.

After a quite some time he managed to get to the bottom of the stairs leaving a long blood track.

"See that wasn't so hard." The man in charge spoke and ruffle shadows head.  
"Don't. Touch. Me." Shadow growled furious and now noticed it was dark outside the building. It was still a power cut but fortunately not raining!

They entered a car that was parked just outside and of course had a large brand of G.U.N on it. But shadow didn't remember much of the ride. He had fallen asleep and was shook awake as they arrived. The hedgehog had enough and glared at the human with clenched fists in pure rage.

"Time to meet the commander Agent Shadow"  
"And time to remind you what rank you really are!" Shadow smirked and used the little energy he had gathered in his sleep and punched the human in the stomach sending him flying.

"Don't mess with me human. As a G.U.N soldier you should know better, don't humiliate a higher rank agent especially not me!" Shadow smirked but he couldn't ignore the pain anymore and lost conscious.


	4. Chapter 4

G.U.N commander deeply frowned upon seeing his strongest agent unconscious. But not only that but also for the fact that he had harmed a foot soldier. Shadow have been put on his couch in the office, after been patched up and cleaned somewhat.

The commander simply didn't want the hedgehog to attack another soldier when he wakes up, or decide to teleport somewhere after the nap. So he kept his eye on the hedgehog while he went through the reports.

Although there was a temptation to wake up the poor hedgehog, but he decided against it for now. His patience wouldn't last forever though and if shadow decided to sleep away the rest of the day that temptation would take action.

But at the moment was more focused to fix the power cut problem and had contacted other organization for support. Shadow in that way could easily teleport to locations that currently lacked electricity. Therefore bring or give information of the situation around. But that wasn't an option...at least not yet.

But what strike commander as odd was the discovery of the lifeless emeralds gathered in one place. Especially as it seemed to be the core of the power cut. The human groaned as the first problem of the week had been eggman and the next a power cut that usually wouldn't be any of his concern. But it was at wide range and could not be ignored.

Especially now as it seemed that the emeralds was some sort connected to this ordeal.

Unless Eggman had something to do with it, but it been reported that he fled the scene as his empire collapsed. Which turn his attention to sonic.

The hero had last seen entering the empire and most likely would know if the doctor was the reason for the power cut.

The scientist could at times be unpredictable and it only the hero and his agent that can take him down singlehanded.

His thoughts returned to the agent seeing the hedgehog peacefully display he saw of shadow was more of an subject than an life form as his title claim to be.

A living creature but a creation against nature. It was purely made to be used in commanders opinion. Even Gerald himself had that in mind to use this very hedgehog to save his granddaughter.

Never had his creation been wanted, it been needed. Upon having such childhood had made shadow have little to no trust to people that wanted him around. Shadow believed it was always a hidden meaning when people asked for his company. The only one that hadn't given off such image for the ultimate life form had been Maria. Therefore shadow only gave support to those in need if he gained something from it. Work with G.U.N case was for security only! To walk among the citizens legally cause he didn't apply as a normal Mobian. Which meant he had no rights as one unless he was working for G.U.N.

Commander was aware of it, and he could send his troops to take shadow down and put him back to the freezing pod anytime he wanted.

He almost did it once after shadow had failed one mission to locate a murderer within 12hours.

Commander had made it clear for shadow in what position he was in, that a failure was never an option.

Easy to say he got the message and pulled of the impossible missions.

Of course they payed him depending on his performance. But the payment went below a normal work.

For the reason shadow didn't need shelter nor food to live, which meant it was unimportant and didn't need money for it.

Although he have seen the agent eat before. But as confirmed it was just for the pleasant taste and not for survival.

Plus shadow never wore cloths other than gloves socks and shoes added with the rings. The commander blinked as he only saw two rings on the ultimate life form.

The very item shadow needed to stay balanced with the chaos energy. After looking at shadow for a while the instinct strike the hedgehog and he woke up feeling watched.

Shadow groaned and first looked down on the couch he was laying on and struggle to change position.

He realized where he was just upon seeing the furniture.

"Commander..." He spoke and slowly went up to sit. Which in turn gave a powerful pain ache down his spine. He grimace in discomfort holding back a whine. Showing signs of emotions was considered weakness, or that's what shadow thought.

The commander observed the agent for a while seeing that clearly rouge hadn't been lying about shadow state.

As it looked like a human could easily harm the hedgehog and that meant shadow was pretty much useless.

"Shadow...it seems like your team member wasn't judging you to kindly as I thought."

Shadow crossed his arms to get some warmth as the room seemed to be really cold. He nodded slowly in agreement he couldn't pretend that he wasn't in pain. That would lead to more pain if commander decided to send him out on missions.

Shadow looked at the new bandages he gotten, the bleeding had stopped thanks to it but the pain remanded. Oh he now wished painkillers worked but his body didn't allowed to get drugged.

"Am I free to go? I need to rest."

The commander frowned displeased his ultimate weapon wanted to "REST!".

"Are you not capable to do small errands? You seemed fine enough to punch one of my soldiers."

Shadow mentally facepalm of course the commander would bring that up and use it against him.

"I lost conscious cause of the effort, and hardly did the punch hurt him that badly."

"two broken ribs."

Shadow gritted his teeth.

"Well he deserved it."

Displeased with the answer the commander stood up and walked over to the agent. Without warning the commander punch the hedgehog hard in the chest.

Shadows ruby eyes widened in shock and a gasp escaped. Shadow never thought the commander was strong enough to actually harm him. But he was so weak at the moment probably why it hurt like hell. Shadow gripped commanders suit in attempt to shove him away. But the only thing he managed to do was to tug it. His messed up quills stood straight up as it did in threatening situation.

Another blow and a sickening crack was heard. Shadow couldn't stay remain silent and whined. This had never happen before shadow never gotten beaten by the human. There have been threats but never had the commander went that far to act upon it. His weakened state gave the commander an opportunity to do so which he couldn't pass.

Shadow felt the commander pressure the broken rib with his fingers. "One.."

The hedgehog clenched his eyes shut as he knew what was coming. Another blow, he wanted to scream in pain. But he refused to show emotions. Unfortunately his body was ready for the punch and tried to resist damage. Which made the human continue with more punches until a second broke.

Shadow felt his eyes begging to cry. But the agent only let out a sound of a sniffle. The chaos energy went straight away to the broken ribs trying to heal it along with the other critical damages. And alas it drained him further of his low energy.

His hands still tugging the commanders suit until the human pulled them off. Shadow gasped as the the commander harshly pulled his left ear upwards.

"Listen now and listen carefully! You are not a true living being you weren't born and you don't have a family and never will! If I hear you harming an innocent habitant again I will take action!"

Shadow gritted his teeth but remained silent the comments was a low blow, surprisingly affected him. He had taken insults such as these before but never had he felt his emotions go high wire.

"You are a dangerous creature and it's my responsibility to make sure you don't cause harm. You are a walking mass destruction among MY citizens! Thanks to me you been able to have a decent life on earth where you do not belong to."

Shadow growled as he pulled his ear further forcing the hedgehog to look up. His ruby eyes stared at the satisfied smirk from his commander.

"I own you."

That made shadow glare threatening and growl furiously. The human simply let go of the ear and walked back to his chair and sat down.

Just then he noticed the green blood on his gloves. Disgust he pulled them off and threw them in the trashcan.

"Alien hybrid." He uttered.

Shadow suddenly stood up ignoring the pain and growled once more.

"You don't own me! Nobody owns me!" He stomped his foot hard on the floor. Which cause the man slam his table in frustration. The hedgehog was stretching his patience.

"Nonsense! We had you in a freezing pod for 50 years! G.U.N have owned you ever since."

"And I escaped three years ago!" Shadow pointed out.

The door slammed open and a soldier saluted before the commander.

"I apologized for my interruption sir but I have some important news!"

"Very well...shadow you are dismissed you may recover as it seems like you are totally useless at the moment. "

Shadow ignored the last part and slowly walked out from the room.

"Yes sir." He muttered enough for the commander to hear.

The pain with every step took all willpower. He wanted to get out from the building and fast. He had hoped to see his team waiting for him. But there was none to support him.

He kept mentally cursing until he had left the base. It was still dark but that was kind a obviously. It was in the middle of autumn and nights arrived earlier. No lamps provided him light in the darkness, this wasn't a problem though. His eye adjusted to the dark and could see almost just as good as the day light.

He had to get shelter to rest and the only place that came to mind was Rouge. Now he had no idea how to get to her from the base.

He walked down the road and hoped to Recognize an area that in turn could lead him to Rouge.

Suddenly at a corner of a building a blinding light aimed at him. A female voice gasped and at first backed off holding her flashlight tightly. Shadow had scared her with just his appearance. He had quills like a animal hedgehog bandages covered some parts of his body green blood dripping from the reopen wounds.

The agent put his hand over his face to cover his eyes from the blinding light.

"Put that flashlight out of my face rose." Shadow growled and the female hedgehog aimed it down to his feet instead.

"I am sorry!"

Her pitched high voice pained his ears now. How the hero could stand her was beyond him or anyone else for that matter.

"Is it really you shadow?" The pink hedgehog asked and approached him.

"Yes." He frowned but did understand that his appearance at the moment was far off his normal state. And considering how difficult she have to tell apart him from sonic then clearly she was having trouble to recognize him now.

"What happen to you!? You are hurt!" Her concern was more annoying at the moment especially when she was standing in his way.

He remained silent and she decided to approach and was about to take his hand. Shadow growled making her freeze on the spot.

"Don't touch me."

"But please shadow let me help you."

"If you want to help me then tell me where Rouge live."

She sighed. "I don't know where she lives."

Shadow turned around and decided to take a different route.

"W..wait!"

The ebony one stopped but didn't turn back to face the female hedgehog.

"I am going to Sonic they have a generator working. You can come with me, Tails is pretty much an doctor he can help."

"Faker..." Shadow growled and Amy realized the mistake to mention his rival.

"please shadow you can rest there for one night and look for Rouge tomorrow."

He finally turned around to Amy but wore an cold expression.

"I will take your offer, as long as faker stay away from me."

"Don't worry I will have Sonics fully attention!" She assured but had no idea how wrong she was.


	5. Chapter 5

Shadow wanted to roll his eyes but blinked instead. The female forced herself on sonic at all times it wasn't like the hero could ignore her. But maybe that would be enough to keep their distance when he joined the others. Shadow merely nodded as reply and she took that as a sign to get going.

"Follow me~" She said which sounded nothing like an order so he could tolerate the high pitch tone of it.  
"It's not to far from here now." She added and walked in slow pace just in case shadow couldn't keep up.  
"So... what happen to you?"she asked but got a snort from the other.  
"None of your business."  
She rolled her eyes at the typical 'shadow reply'.  
"True."

Shadow was relieved that the female wasn't persistent this time around for an answer. But then again they didn't speak much to one another. If the speedster was nearby she would forget that shadow was even there. But he wouldn't say he wanted to be noticed.

"Here we are!" She suddenly said and entered the garden. Shadow stopped and looked at the massive house and the garage in similar size. This was pretty much outside the town and space enough for the tornado to take off and land.

'But why such large house?' Shadow thought, it was just the kitsune and the hedgehog living in it. However he was certain that the hero was pretty much rich thanks to his hero deeds. Although shadow have done the very same thing a few times but he rarely was mentioned on the news.  
In a way he was envious of all that money sonic gained enough to live under a roof.  
He stared at the expensive house.

'Well more than enough' he frowned.

"Shadow come on let's not stay out here in the cold."  
Now the agent was used to that already and his body could adapt to the cold. But of course there was a point where the cold could freeze him which reminded him of the feezing pod.  
Shadow nodded and followed the other but kept distance. She knocked on the door and the hero open it in a flash.

The pink hedgehog didn't hesitate but gave the cobalt one surprising death hug, pretty much squeezing the life out of him.

"I missed you sonic! And I was so scared when everything turned black! I wish I came earlier!"  
She let go of him and allowed him to breath again.  
"Nice to see you too Amy..." He said halfhearted. She smiled and now remembered the ebony hedgehog that joined her.

"But then again I wouldn't have met shadow if I did."  
Sonic blinked confused as his rival was mentioned.  
"Shadow?"  
"Yes he will stay here as well if that's okay? He is hurt."

Shadow frowned as she described him as a weak helpless pet. Right at that moment he just wanted to leave teleport just disappear. But he couldn't and it was just one night which he hoped he could mentally survive.

The light from the door didn't reach the ebony and sonic couldn't see him. So he made himself known for the hero and stepped forward to the light.  
Sonics emerald eyes stared at his rival in shock. Never had he seen shadow like this, not even in their worst fight.

'What have happen? Who did this to him!? Another enemy!?' Sonic thought while he in silence observed shadows damaged state. The first thing he wanted to do was to sprint over to the other and carry him all way to the hospital.

But shadows pride would stop him from doing so. The best he could do was to provide him some shelter.  
"What on earth happen to you!?" Sonic asked and walked over to his rival, seeing that he was in no state to run away or let alone teleport.

Shadow glared at his counterpart and crossed his arms.  
"This is none of your concern faker, this won't kill me and that's all you need to know"  
Sonic sighed in defeat, there was no way he could get answers anytime soon, if he knew shadow correctly.  
"Well come on in we have more than enough food for you to stay."  
"I will only be capable to stay one day faker." He lied,there was just no way he would like to be among them for longer than a day.

"What? Where are you going?"  
Shadow open his mouth to answer but got interrupted.  
"He is going to rouge." Amy interjected getting a annoyed look from the agent.  
"I see, well maybe you change your mind." Sonic chuckled and walked back to the house and held the door open for them to enter.

"Come on in let's not stay out here all day."  
Amy entered first with a uncertain shadow afterwards. He looked around it was warm comfortable and the space was enormous. Sonic shut the door but kept a close eye on his rival.  
Never had the ebony hedgehog met them on more casual days. It made him smile, sonic wanted shadow to feel as comfortable as possible.

The cobalt hedgehog suddenly felt a sticky mass under his sneakers.  
"Ew what is this." He grimace and caught both of their attention.  
Green thick liquid drops was on the floor which the speedster got under his shoes.  
"That is my blood faker."

Sonic looked over to the other and indeed there was one bandage that around his arm that didn't provide cover anymore.  
"You have green blood?"  
Shadow frowned as his alien part of him was exposed.  
"So you are not colorblind after all." Shadow eye twitched in annoyance.  
"Oh... no I am sorry wait I will get you something!" He said in a flash and disappear from sight. Before shadow even manage to take a step the blue blur returned.  
He was holding a towel and some sort of lotion.

"Tails made this special shampoo! It helps to heal wounds much faster. Just look at me scarless and.."  
"Perfect." Amy ended with a dreamy look.

But both male hedgehogs ignored it.

"The point is it will help you to recover faster."  
Shadow looked at the objects and had a inner debate of whenever or not to try it. The whole day have only prevented his healing, Commander even added two as well.

"You mean I have to take a shower." He frowned feeling quite displeased with that.  
"Ehm yeah you wash it out afterwards besides it might also help your quills. But I am not forcing you." He added which put some ease on his mind. Shadow had planned to just rest and let the chaos energy do it's work. But the possibility to speed it up would be even better.

"I take your word it works." Shadow answer in his weird way to say 'sure let me try it.'  
Cobalt ears perked up at the wanted answer.  
"Let me show you the bathroom."  
"What about me sonic!?" The pink hedgehog complained. She certainly is a attention freak at least for the hero.

Sonic scratched behind his ear trying to think up something.  
"You can eh..would be cool if you could cook some delicious food." He said giving her a fake smile that kinda meant 'leave me alone I am helping shadow' sort of way.

Why sonic insisted to help him in the first place was a mystery to the ebony but not in a bad way. He may be the hero but the agent never thought the blue blur cared about him.  
"Of course I can!" She said and ran off leaving them alone. Sonic sighed in relief and looked back to his rival.

Shadow gave him a questionable look of the fact sonic just tricked the female to leave.  
"What? She would follow us everywhere and I doubt you want her chattering around as well."  
"For once you have a point faker."  
"Like always !"  
Shadow just mentally rolled his eyes.  
"Come on shads let's go!" Sonic took off in almost speed of a sonic boom.  
The agent frowned at the younger naivety, shadow was in no condition to run. And sonic returned just as quickly as he left.  
"Oh I forgot."  
"Let's just get this over with." Shadow sighed and followed the other to the bathroom in normal pace!  
Everything about the house was in top shape, Like it just been clean. The hallway was stretched out but the bathroom wasn't far off the main entrance.

The agent inspected the bathroom as it was a crime scene. Shadow couldn't put the finger on it but for some reason it all felt suspicious. As if the hero was plotting something but so far not acted upon it.  
He wanted to stay far away from his rival but this was an harmless suggestion. No taunting no insults and no jokes, yet.

His counterpart seemed to take his condition more seriously than he thought. In a way made him calm something he would not feel otherwise with sonic. It had been far to many times he wanted to kill the blue blur. How easy it would have been to get rid of one of the worst part of his life. But doing so most likely would cause his daily life turn worse.

One thing he looked forward to was commander coming death. Either by some disease, killed or simply by old age. That in mind made him smirk longing. But replacement of him would have same kind of plans, make his life hell. Shadow had once been introduced to these possible successor. First thing "humans" secondly hate towards his own very existence and power hungry "men".

Shadow saw a female in charge as a better option for their organization. Not that all men was bad but a woman was more likely to have more sympathy methods than what these kind of successor that had been chosen.

But the most reason to this mindset of his was influence from Maria. She showed more patience wisdom than any man on earth claimed to have. It wasn't her innocence, she simply was a genius robotnik. She taught him so much beyond school tutors. Devices she created whenever she got her hands on. But she believed that all people on earth needed a chance to be happy. But some of these people had their own way to get happiness and sometimes brutal.

"Shadow.."  
The agent woke up from his deep thoughts and gave the other a glare.  
"You really need to stop doing that."  
"Do what?" The agent asked in confusion.  
"You glare at me as if I am going to harm you."  
"You wouldn't be able to harm me even if you wanted to." Shadow smirked.  
"You sure about that?" Sonic grinned seeing a challenge but shake his head. He wouldn't attack his rival unless he had a very good reason to.  
"Positive." Sonic rolled his eyes he have damaged the other before but not enough to make him bleed only bruises. But shadow haven't caused more damage on the hero as well.

"Anyways I will let you shower now see ya soon shads."  
And with that the hero were gone leaving shadow alone. He sighed content before he closed the door and locked it. Last thing he wanted was one of the mobians to enter while he was showering. How awkward that would be, the mere thought put a red shade on his muzzle.

His thoughts changed to the current problem. Take off the bandages. The blue blur never gave him new ones. But maybe this shampoo would do wonder and that wouldn't be needed.  
He gulped as he slowly unwrapped the bandages. It hurt!He started with the one that stopped cover his wound properly. While doing so he gritted his teeth. The wound started to freely bleed, but not enough to be a problem. If he just had more chaos energy.

He turned his attention to the other ones. This pained him worse, the little layer of skin was attached to the bandage. Like ripping it off would bring the skin along it and cause him to bleed to death. He clumsily yet good enough unwrapped the remaining ones. He whined in pain and could freely cry nobody would know. Shadow didn't care if it made him feel weak and pathetic. But in front of others he wanted to be strong, emotionless why? Something shadow himself didn't quite understand. A strong feeling of fear came to mind.

"Do..do I fear?" He thought out loud. Lately it seemed to him that his emotions gotten stronger. But skillfully manage to hide it.

The tears manage to fall on one of his wound and give off a burning sensation making the hedgehog gasp. He fast brought his hands to rub his eyes to get rid of them even though the tears kept on falling. The agent now allowed himself to cry not only for the pain but because of the brutal unfair life he was living.  
When was the last time he even slept on a proper bed? Must been on the ark.  
"53..years ago?" He sniffle to himself.  
And when was it last time he got fed?  
"A month ..no two years ago...I don't know ." This wasn't the first time he started to talk to himself.

When have shadow been free and not used?The hedgehog started to think through his little memory that have managed to get back from the whole amnesia. He saw the images where he had been tested in the laboratory on the space colony ark. Eggman wish to rule using him in the progress, sonic and his friends during the alien attack. Black doom and lastly G.U.N.

"Never..never."  
Shadow growled and gritted his teeth trying to control his emotions. He was the ultimate life form for crying out loud! Immortal powerful unstoppable! How could feelings rule him?! He was suppose to be in control of it. Or why did he even have it to begin with? Malfunction? There was so many questions he wanted to ask Gerald. So many times he felt like he was losing himself to these emotions. Telling him there was something he desperate needed.  
"What do I need?.." He whispered to himself and looked down on his badly damaged body.

His thoughts found the only thing he knew he wanted and needed.  
"Maria..." That very name stopped the tears and the feelings that went out of control to calm down.

"Maria never used me."  
Maria had been the only one he got attached to. That he wanted to protect and be with her. She was everything to him, even if his purpose was to save her by going through those experiments it would be worth it.

However that never happen she was never save but instead killed by the very organization he is working for now.  
Realty struck him that she was gone forever. But that tiny memory he had of her was what kept him going.

But would she hate him for being controlled yet forced to work for G.U.N he would never know. 


	6. Chapter 6

**author note: guest: I haven't said anything about discontinue the story :) I write it now and then quite often updates now days maybe it will be the first fanfic I finish:) anyways enjoy this chapter and I really need to change the summary..**

Shadow manage to get out of his deep thoughts and face the reality. The agent sighed as he remembered that he still need to take that shower.

He walked over to the shower after taking off his shoes and gloves along with the rings. Which reminded him of the damaged ones in his quills.

He tried to reach them but yelped as he cut himself on the razor sharp quills even if they were pulled away seeing more likely chance of losing his hand instead of getting his rings . And it wasn't like he could shake them out. They were perfectly placed to where it wouldn't fall out no matter what. How he managed to get this rings in there in the first place was beyond him. The only thing that concerned him about that was the fact of the messed up quills.

He HAD to shape it to its proper condition,if not then a lot of accidents would occur. He sighed and just hoped that the shower would make it easier for him later. Then he suddenly acknowledge the sensation of weakness.

The chaos energy was uncertainly flowing in his body thanks to his state. Unsure where to repair first no support from the rings lack of energy. Yes shadow didn't like being ring less at this state.

"Let's make this quick." He frowned and stepped in to the shower.

* * *

"Tails! Guess what!?" Sonic suddenly appeared infront of the kitsune making him yelp in surprise. He almost fell but it caused him to drop some of his tools.

"You scared me!" Tails frowned not so much interested in what sonic had to say thanks to that. He hunched down to pick up his tools and stood back up to face the other.

"Sorry.." Sonic scratched his muzzle with a guilty expression.  
Tails lightly chuckled and decided to hear him out since curiosity hit him.  
"Shadow is here and going to stay over the night."

"Shadow!? Isn't he working with G.U.N? that organization is pretty strict with off duty. Especially when it comes to someone like him. Which reminds me why is he here in the first place? Surely the organization would need all help they can get. Even if he is off duty what is he doing here? Out of all places! I would say THIS is the last place on his 'visit list'. And then again!..."

"Tails!"  
The fox stopped when he perceive that he had thought out loud and blushed embarrassed. This could happen when he hadn't slept much and decided to get some caffeine in the system.

"I told you to stop drinking that and sleep earlier this is not good for you." Sonic said seriously and crossed his arms in a very similar way as shadow do,even wearing the scowl in disapproval.

"I know I know. Now tell me what he is doing here." Tails said quickly trying to change subject.

Sonic let it slide this time he was more excited to reveal why shadow was here than to bother to scold his little brother.

"Amy found Shadow heavily damaged and somehow convince him to stay over night."  
"Amy did what!? How!?" Tails asked in shock that the female had manage to bring the ultimate life form to their home.

"I don't know yet she is in the kitchen TRYING to cook." He sighed making the fox at first laugh, then to a panic. she was worse in the kitchen than the hero.  
"Don't worry she told me some days ago that vanilla taught her to cook now...after she had just poison me!"he added with a frown remembering all those days he spent in the toilet.

"That's great news for you! Cause whatever she is making now will you forcefully have to eat."  
"Don't remind me..."  
"So what about shadow where is he?"

Sonic had totally forgotten about the anti hero to worried of the snack Amy was making. But smiled now at the mentioned of the other hedgehog.  
"He is taking a shower. I let him use that shampoo you made."

"Oh I see, but how can he suddenly be so easily convinced?"  
"That crossed my mind too but I don't know...I am just glad he listen for once."  
Suddenly a loud smash was heard and a screaming Amy. They ran over to the kitchen quickly and was surprised to see her slamming the stove with her hammer.  
"Stop Amy!" Tails panicked and tried to pull the female away from it but she didn't budge.

"That thing burned me!" She growled which was very unlike her and kept hitting it ignoring the kitsune.

"What's going on?" A deep voice asked making them all turn around to see the new showered hedgehog. Amy completely forgot about the stove and let her hammer disappear in thin air.

Shadow blinked as it was now gone but shrugged it off.  
"I am cooking." Amy smiled innocently trying to cover up the fact that she had violently attacked the stove just two seconds ago.

The agent crossed his arms and decided to be silent. He didn't bother to speak to the stupid female hog any longer. That did a awkward silence until sonic finally started to speak.

"Shads let's go I will show you the guest room."  
The anti hero nodded as he wanted nothing more than to rest. But if the pink one continued to make a fuss and disturbed his sleep...well let's just say it would end badly for her.

Amy was about to follow them but got stopped by a pissed fox.  
Sonic walked down the hallway heading to the more distant rooms. Surely shadow wanted some peace and quiet so he choose to give one of the rooms in the corner.  
"What do you think?" Sonic asked and let his rival enter first.

It was plain white nothing fancy in shadows opinion but at it didn't have similarities to a hospital. Which was good cause white reminded him a lot of laboratory and hospitals. But for some reason he preferred white than let's say black.

Shadow may be dark furred but that didn't mean he adored the color. It made him more fearsome than an ordinary hedgehog. Especially his red eyes that he sometimes wished to replace.

Humans often mentioned his eyes and got terrified if he just looked at them. He didn't even have to glare for that. But for some reason sonic didn't fear him not even a slightly neither hated.

Even rouge had proved to flinch sometimes when he gave her a serious look. He knew she didn't hate him but slight fear could appear now and then, but their relationship was stronger to get affect by it.

Maria called his eyes adorable though but she also loved the color red. But then again he had a soft expression back then and smiled happily, and probably gave of a more sweet that was past and he had to get over it. However seemed to him that the more he tried the less it did.

The agent looked around the room a little bit more and noticed that sonic had joined him.  
"Well...?"  
"It's fine." He answered making the hero cheerfully smile.  
"Oh by the way seems like the shampoo helped..." Although he ended up staring at the worse shape of his quills and sweat dropped.  
"Almost everywhere."

Shadow figure out what he was pointing out yes his quills was indeed worse. He brought his hand up to it expecting it to be soft now after the shower.

"Ouch!" He cut himself again why did his state make him so clumsy!? He knew what to do but his fingers didn't obey properly. Sonic managed to keep his laugh back and approached the other while smiling innocently.

"Not to be an reminded but you can't sleep with that unless you plan to ruin the bed and possibly cut yourself."  
Shadow frowned at the confirmation but he could hear an hidden meaning in what his rival meant.

"And what do you suggest faker?"  
"Well...I could fix it for you."  
"Not a chance." Shadow frowned and crossed his arms. How humiliating! He would NOT let someone like his rival help him,especially with this!  
"It won't take long aaaaand I won't tell anyone I promise."  
"Do I have to repeat myself?"  
Sonic sighed shadow could be so stubborn and frustrating sometimes.  
"Look shadow, I might not be a doctor but I know how hedgehog works. And you won't get any sleep with that. Unless you totally get knocked out. You will need all rest you can get. So just allow me to help you with this."

Sonic speech surprised the agent so far the hero have only helped him. But his pride said NOO NOO NOO!While a other part wanted the help.  
His pride have already been damaged he didn't have much to lose. No one else could possibly fix the quills other than himself and sonic. They were so similar just minor differences.

Sonic took the silence as a uncertain yes and brought one stool over to the bed. He patted the stool gently and smiled to the confused agent.

It was like he couldn't progress what was happening. The situation was unfamiliar while sonic waited patiently for shadow to make a move.

He finally made up his mind that this would only happen once in his never ending life time.

Shadow slowly approached and avoided eye contact as he sat down on the stool.  
"Not a word." The agent growled, he have never let anyone other than the ark scientists and Maria to touch him. Sonic had before placed a few punches but not further than that. Completely different situation now and shadow preferred a brawl with his rival than this.

Sonic was surprised that the other had given up so quickly. He was starting to wonder if shadow was sick but to bring that up would be an insult to his 'ultimate life form' title. He figure that the pain that had been put on shadow stopped him from resisting help.

Sonic have once helped Amy with her quills. Back in the days when she had pretty much same quill shape as sonic. She never cared for it and to their surprise it seemed that her quills refused to stand up as it did before. Amy got so mad at him for 'ruining' her quills. But after a while started to like it and learned to care for it herself. But sonic preferred it spiky but if he said that now she would instantly change it back.

"Don't worry I won't...just relax." He assured and took off his gloves. Sonic would have trouble having them on cause it would dull the feeling. And right now he had to explore it to figure out how to fix it. Amy's quills had been easier since first of...it was soft second it was angled downwards.

Shadow had up and down that would be complicated. And maybe sonic couldn't live up to the promise to make it quick.  
Shadow squeeze his eyes shut and tried to relax that was really important. The risk was that he would damage the hero otherwise.

"Ready?"  
"Just get it over with." He forced out and couldn't keep his eyes closed as sonic suddenly yet gently touched the upper quills. Instantly it stood up as it do in threaten situation. Sonic skillfully avoided it and frowned a bit.  
"You have to relax."  
"I know faker!"

He tried again to relax but before sonic could continue it returned back to tense again. Sonic waited and observed the agent having problem to simply relax. He haven't seen a hedgehog have such trouble with it.

All hedgehogs knew how to relax their quills. Now sonic and shadow was one of those that had very dangerous ones. It could tear apart just anything it hit. That's what made it even more important to know how to control it.

This made him think deeper into the subject. As confirmed shadow didn't let his guard down ever, maybe not even asleep. Sonic was certain he wouldn't be able to keep his quills that tense at all times. There was few factors that could keep it standing. Fear,threaten,stress,discomfort,anger,sorrow,panic,pain,depression.

Sonic don't recall seeing shadow relaxed before. How he didn't notice this before he don't know. Ultimate or not it's not healthy.

He suspected that shadow was so stuck in the ultimate title to realize that he wasn't immune to everything. Sonic bet shadow would have lost his quills long ago if he was a normal hedgehog, maybe even the fur.

All signs had been there and sonic just hadn't looked at it. As well had shadows social interaction been with G.U.N team dark and few times himself and friends.  
But he had to admit his rival was a very good actor or simply so deep down in factors and saw it as normal.

The agent hadn't yet relaxed although sonic been thinking for quite some time.  
'Time to take some action.' Sonic thought and decide to help the other in a different approach.

Instead of going to the quills he put his hand on top of his head. Shadow flinched at the touch but remained frozen.

"What are you doing?" The agent asked and felt sonic softly dig his finger through his fur instead.  
"I am helping you of course."  
"It's not helping faker!"

Sonic rolled his eyes as the anti hero didn't understand.  
"I need to stimulate you. Relax your instinct is the only way. In other words make you comfortable."

"We will be here forever faker."

"Nah it will work just let me continue."

Shadow blushed it was such sudden affection he wasn't used to it. Maybe he should just strangle his rival for it. It was oddly wanted but at the same time disgusted him. The hero took the silence to proceed.

His fingers lightly rubbed the ebony fur slowly changing location to the ears that twitched on the touch. A deep growl escaped from the agent as if he was ready to attack his rival.

Sonic weakly smiled as he had gone to far and decide to just scratch behind the ear.  
'Humiliating humiliating humiliating!' Shadow thoughts echo making he tighten his fists. This didn't make him comfortable it made it all worse! But why didn't he break lose and punish his rival for being to close?

Something kept him there, the part that liked the attention.  
Sonic was feeling rather nervous now touching the other like this, it was odd. Never had thought of doing this but it had to be done.

Sonic knew how a male hedgehog function and was aware of how to make shadow comfortable.  
He had to admit that it was entertaining to put shadow in this situation. Although he didn't want to go to far he was already on the edge.

If was a wonder the agent had unleashed his frustration.  
The quills shoot up tense more than before. Sonic mentally sighed and let his hand fall to the ebony shoulder. Shadow flinched again surprised by the change but didn't pull away.  
Sonic put more pressure on the shoulders before he gave him a massage.  
The ebony ears twitched and tensed up in a odd way. Sonic observed the change of behavior as the growling died down.

The hero took the liberty to move one of his hands away from the shoulder and slowly get through the red striped quills. Indeed did shadow relaxed enough for sonic to start fixing it. Even the ears now relaxed and lowered down.

Sonic was amazed to explore the odd quills it was all pretty much pointing upwards. But the middle ones were to heavy to do so.

His other hand kept on working on shadows shoulder through the progress.  
The agent let our a content sigh and closed his eyes. He liked it. Not that he would confess that but shadow didn't want it to stop.

Sonic perked his ears at the pleased sigh that was a good sign and put a smile on his muzzle.

He felt something solid in the quills am item? Sonic gently took it out and stared at the object. Took a while before he realized it was a Inhibitor ring. He knew what this item did, shadow needed it. But this one was cracked badly and it worried him. He continue to massage the hedgehog trying to distract the fact that he was observing the ring now.

Whatever reason it was damaged for must be connected to shadows damages. He wanted to ask now but seeing how the other was enjoying he couldn't bring to ask.

Instead sonic put it on the bed gently so shadow couldn't hear it. If the items was so precious as he recall it was for shadow, then the other obviously would get mad if he found out he had touched it.

The hero returned to fix the quills and found another ring. He sighed as this one as well was damaged and put it beside the other one.

Even if he put a lot of effort doing this it was kind a fun for the hero. It also made him smile as his rival was relaxing.

Soon enough the quills was in it's proper condition and sonic was proud with his work.  
He had however never seen it relax down so much like it did now. Sonic put back the rings carefully and lightly brushed through his quills with his fingers.

It separated perfectly between his fingers and sent a little shiver down shadows spine.  
Sonic smiled but was surprised with the reaction.  
"Shadow I am done." But the agent didn't respond.  
Sonic frowned and lightly shake the other.  
"Please don't stop."  
He whispered and sonic froze, shadow begged!  
Sonic turned his head to face his rival who was..sleeping.

The hero chuckled, he almost thought shadow had lost it. It still was amusing that the agent talked in his sleep.

Sonic felt the other lean back on him, it was awkward to say the least. The hero was considering taking the opportunity to do something he always wanted to do. Having an inner argue for a while he decided to do it.

Shadow wouldn't know anyways he was sleeping. The hero grinned eagerly and let his hand move to the chest and touch the little white chest fur. It was very soft and pleasant to touch. He lightly rubbed it between his fingers but got no reaction from the sleeping hog.

He always wondered how it felt like. While his own chest had very short peach colored fur.

Sonic finally let go off it and picked up the sleeping hog in his arms. He looked down on the other that peacefully slept. It was weird to see his rival without that scowl or annoyed expression.

"Don't worry shadow everything is going to be alright." Sonic said not sure why he just felt it was the right words to tell the other, even though he didn't hear it.

He moved the sleeping hog to the bed not bothering taking off his attire. Besides shadow would probably not be happy in the morning to find out he fell asleep while sonic was fixing his quills. The hero went over to the door and shut the light off.

"Goodnight shadow the hedgehog."


	7. Chapter 7

Shadow groaned as a high pitched voice tear through his eardrums. He was between sleep and awake state and if the voice just could be silent! Then he would be able to continue to sleep. But it repeats itself over and over. He couldn't make out of what the voice said but it sure was annoying.  
The agent tugged the pillow in frustration as his eyelids open. The unfocused crimson eyes searched for the source of the owner of the voice. It then suddenly went silent but that was to late now. Shadow sat up and put away the blanket from himself.

Confusion strikes him as he doesn't recall going to sleep. But he remembers the room and that the hero was going to fix his quills.  
Shadow reached out to his quills and indeed it was in its proper shape. The strong scent of his rival had attached itself on his body. He cursed at his sensitive nose. Another human or Mobian wouldn't pick it up but he was the 'ultimate life form ' which kindly granted him that.

He frowned deeply this was more like a curse along with a lot of other things he was granted with. But with a lot of training he was able to ignore the scents that lingering in the air. But to have it literally attached to you made it impossible to ignore, especially if you like it!  
Yes shadow the hedgehog found sonic scent pleasant but not only that! Every hedgehog seemed to give off a good kind of scent for him.

After further exploring this phenomenon he concluded that the purpose was to attract him to other mobians of his race. Even the pink one smelt somewhat nice. This ability however didn't affect his mental state as far as he knew. But then again he kept himself at safe distance of other hedgehogs in general.

He closed his eyes and inhaled the smell and felt his quills suddenly relax. Yesterday he had so much trouble to do it why work now?  
Crimson eyes snapped open in realization making his quills returned to its alert shape. The scent. ...The scent caused his subconscious to relax but why Sonic's?  
Shadow growled annoyed and pushed himself up from the bed. He was surprised of how effortless that was, the wounds almost fully healed. The ribs was only sore  
He brushed his fingers across his arm in awe there was no way he could have healed that fast. He was a fast healer sure but he suspected the lack of the two rings didn't hold back the chaos energy as good.

Shadow sighed before he headed his way out from the room, time to search for Rouge. He hoped to get out of the house unnoticed, but his luck said otherwise.  
"Shads!"

The ebony frowned as the hero appeared in front of him in the hallway. The agent was so close to the door it was frustrating. The emerald eyes observed him like searching for something. This confused shadow especially because it looked like sonic was thinking of something.

Sonic study shadows quills, back to its tense threatened state. Of course yesterday wouldn't permanently relax the other. But he wished it did. However this was shadow a very stubborn hedgehog. It would take a lot of effort and time to help him. Especially when the agent didn't want help and avoided people. The silence had been for a while and shadow wanted to shove the other away and leave the house.  
"Faker...what happen yesterday?"  
Sonic smiled at the mention of the day before. How shadow had begged him to continue it was cute. The hero enjoyed seeing Shadow relaxed and it put a smile on his lips.  
"You fell asleep while I fixed your quills."

Shadow nodded and could now relax as what he suspected was confirmed. The agent couldn't help that it felt really good. Have someone else fixing his quills, rubbing the fingertips against his head. Then the massage was truly nice something he never tried before.  
But now this caused him to wear scent from sonic. Damn he liked it but he was considering washing it off later. That scent was tricking him to like that FAKER! He replay the things sonic had done in the past that pissed him off. He kept the good parts away far down as possible.  
"I see." Shadow answer with a cold tone. The thoughts was helping after all. He had to keep it going though.

Sonic mentally frowned at the change of behavior. Shadow was back to be..eh shadow again! He smiled ignoring the frustration, he had to do something. Before he would just let it slide and fool around. But shadow was seriously hurt, mentally.

"Let's eat something you are hungry right?" Sonic asked and looked at the other confused expression. Shadow wasn't much sure if he was hungry or not. But he didn't eat after all and didn't have afforded to eat either.  
"Hungry?" He thought out loud but still wondering if he was.  
"Ehm yeah you know the pain in your belly telling you to eat." Sonic said and mentally laughed as the agent looked clueless.  
"I don't need to eat to live." Shadow crossed his arms feeling superior than the other hedgehog.  
"Eat anyways. It's really good!" Sonic said and gave a thumb up. He wished to drag the other to the kitchen. But this was shadow you can't make him do just anything. And by the look of it he was healed and not as controlled by the pain.  
"I am wasting time I need to go."  
"Time? Well wasting time would be searching for rouge and not find her. " sonic grinned as he finally caught shadow with a logical point for once.  
"And you are suggesting?"  
"Well I know where she lives and if you eat something I will take you there."

Shadow frowned, he had to eat? He has never been forced to eat. In fact it have been the very opposite. For some reason the commander didn't want him to eat. This reminded him he never let him have lunch break. Or break in general. He has forgotten how you eat and taste the food. Why did he even hesitate to eat when now got a chance to. Unknowing to Shadow he been feed with these comments of being the 'ultimate life form' than to just be shadow. Be the person people expected him to be, well what G.U.N expected him to be..

Ever since he woke up he only had gotten bad influence. To be the most superior creation at all times. Should really a person like him walk among the mortals? It hit him that's exactly what commander pointed out. He shake off the thought before he would dwell in it further.

"Soo..?" Sonic cleared his throat to wake up the other from the thoughts. The hero knew the other hedgehog was silent a lot. When he finally spoke he could end up in some trance. Shadow had lot on mind that he kept to himself. As sonic suspected a lot of negative thoughts just by looking at his rival.  
"You shouldn't waste food supply on me." Shadow replied with an uncertain tone. Sonic wanted to ask why he just couldn't eat with them.  
"Hey sonic! I am done with the food!" A high pitch voice came from the kitchen. Sonic froze in horror and soon the female bit came out to the kitchen with a spoon in her hand.

"Ah! Shadow! You can eat as well I put the whole morning on this food."  
Shadow frowned as he now knew who was loud this morning and woke him up! He stared at the female who approached almost leap to them. Now this time she actually pay attention to the darker hedgehog.

"You look so much better today. That's amazing healing power you have." She compliment him and expected..or wanted a reaction from shadow. The ultimate life form had to admit the pink hog had some moments she was actually tolerable. Her scent was quite sweet too and if she wasn't so downright stupid and annoying the hog would be a promising mate. Well for others that are he wasn't looking for a partner and never would.

" I guess." Shadow replied with little to no interest of what she said. She squealed happily as he actually replied. So it wasn't a fluke shadow spoke to her yesterday. The agent groaned at the annoying noise she made. He hoped she would stop talking and disappear. But that didn't seem to be the case.

"So will you stay here longer? I could cook for both of you. I read that some food can increase the healing ability and still be tasty! What is your favorite food shadow? I bet it's something strong like a lot of chili in! Sonic like strong food too! With my cooking skills and creativity I could make the most delicious food ever!" Amy kept on talking and poked a finger on shadow like trying to get his attention. Sonic saw his rival boil in anger ready to kill the female hog. He wanted to laugh but that probably would set him off.

"What is your favorite color? Mine is pink and blue. Cause sonic is blue! You should dye your quills blue, which would actually make you look good!" Amy blurting out the most absurd things downright insults the agent this time.  
Shadow growled it was getting to annoying being compared to his rival! It wasn't the first time and every time it did he was the "fake" one. He shouldn't let these comments get to him and certainly not by that stupid hog.

Sonic gulped and couldn't let this go on any longer. In super speed he gripped the ebony arm tightly and pulled him along out from the house quickly. Hearing the female start yelling after them in desperation to follow but was to slow for.  
Shadow could easily break free but it was a needed escape or he would have chaos blast the whole house. Temper issues he had to control them, which he did but inside he was having an inner fight. Sonic soon halt outside the town and let go of the other. Shadow gave him am emotionless expression making the hero nervous. The agent rubbed his arm and remained silent as if progress what just happen.

"I am sorry I didn't mean to pull you. But I couldn't come up with anything else that would stop Amy from eh...talking."  
Shadow couldn't stay angry at his rival for it he was more grateful for the escape.  
"I don't mind." He snorted and looked over the landscape.  
"Ehm shadow.."

The ebony one returned his attention to the hero. He was just about to enjoy the silence but didn't seem that sonic would give him that.  
"I think you look amazing in black and red it suits you don't listen to Amy."  
Shadow was surprised with the comment but for some reason liked it. It gave him a fuzzy calm feeling that sooth his anger and it was rather pleasant. He emotionless stared at sonic expecting him to joke but there was none.

The hero didn't except him to but he could tell that the word got to him. Sonic kept a close eye on the quills and smiled as it suddenly relaxed. That only meant one thing shadow liked it but was not going to show it. Quills sure gave away shadows true emotions.  
Only a professional could understand that hedgehog language. But for sonic it was just as easy to see someone smile. Shadows expressionless feature would not trick him anymore. Sonic had always thought his rival was pretty much emotionless.

"I don't care what she thinks." Shadow replied avoiding the compliment sonic said.  
"Faker show me where rouge live."  
The hero rolled his eyes and shakes his head.  
"Nope first eat!" Shadow frowned displeased; his rival insisted that eating was so important for him. But for some reason sonic company was alright now. When he got back to work again sonic would be on top of his hate list.

"Let's get this over with." Shadow muttered and sonic laughed before he suddenly took off. The agent blinked before he dashed after. He catches up quickly but then again sonic was intentionally running slower. This was not a race but the hero still got the adrenaline as soon as shadow was with him. He has been the only one that could keep up with him.

Sonic suddenly stopped in the center of the town. Shadow soon appeared beside him and frowned at where they are. He hated crowded places. And it was so many people walking around with their cellphones talking loudly kids running around and then baby screams.  
Sonic could tell shadow hated the atmosphere and this had to be quick. Where he was intending to go was also crowded which the agent most likely would ditch him for.  
"Shadow you can sit down there and wait for me I will get us the food." Sonic said and before his rival could protest he was gone.

The ebony hedgehog sighed and went over to the bench. There was one man sitting there feeding the birds with a bread. Shadow shrugged as he didn't see any other options to wait and it was just ONE human. He could stand that. As long as he wasn't standing where all citizens were walking. The area was crowded after all it was a wonder more wasn't sitting on that bench. But maybe people were too busy for that. Shadow sat down far away from the human but it still got his attention.  
"Sha...shadow!" The man stuttered scared and as soon their eyes met the human ran off screaming. The very name caught the citizen's attention and the odd behavior of the man who was screaming. They soon saw him and some gasp and some whispered. Shadow looked their way, they all was staring at him. The citizens totally forgot what they were supposed to do. The ultimate life form got irritated and glared at them. Soon enough all the people ran off in different directions in panic. Some kids screamed terrified as their parents carried them away. 

It became completely silent now, shadow sat there alone confused of what just happen. He knew the people were scared of him but not this much! He liked silence but not this way it made him feel so guilty. Shadow flinched as he sadness began to develop.  
"No.." He whispered as a painful lump in his throat appears. Was same as yesterday but this time he had to keep it in. His quills twitched and he slowly began to shiver.  
'Think positive think positive!' Shadow thought and searched for something yet again to cheer him up. Maria was a dead end this time. He squeezed his eyes shut and put his head in his hands trying to control the emotions. His breath became shallow and it was getting difficult to inhale the oxygen.  
Shadow growled furiously not another break down!

But then he heard a chirp and another. His ebony ears perked at the sound and looked up. The crimson eyes were watering but it turned its attention to the source of the noise. A couple of birds were standing before him. Patiently waiting for something, they didn't fear him. He focused on the smallest one that bravely poked on his shoe to get his attention. This calmed him down and could breathe normally now. Shadow swallow hard and got rid of the feeling and rubbed away his incoming tears. Nor everyone was scared of him but these were animals. But for shadow it was good enough and it caused him smile a little.  
"What are you waiting for?" He asked and the bird just tilted its head. Shadow couldn't deny it was rather cute.  
The agent leaned back trying to relax and his hand suddenly hit something. It was the bread the human used before to feed the birds. He had accidentally dropped it before he ran off.  
"Oh so this is what you want." Shadow chuckle and took the bread and tear it off in pieces before throwing it out.  
They began to happily eat as shadow continues to feed them. 

Sonic however was walking his way back to the other, holding two chilidogs. There was no way shadow would dislike it. But then suddenly crowded of people ran up to him in panic.  
"Please sonic! You have to stop shadow he harmed a man!"  
"Not only that but also threaten to kill us!"  
"You have to chase him out from town before he harm someone else!"  
"Put him in jail or kill him!"  
"Yeah he should die for what he have done!"  
"He killed my father!"  
The people kept on going making sonic both angry and disappointed. He knew shadows past and could forgive him. But of course he did crimes people would never forgive or forget.

"Don't worry I will take care of it." Sonic assured and the citizens cheered. This didn't feel right to him though. If what they said was true then he would have a serious talk with shadow.  
He returned and saw his rival feeding a couple of birds. The scene was quite cute it was so unlike shadow. But even so had to ask what the whole fuss was about.  
Shadow didn't notice him until he sat down beside him. Sonic questionable looked at the bread 'where did he get that from?' 

"What happen?" Sonic asked without catching shadows attention. His crimson eyes observed the birds as they ate.  
"What do you mean what happen?" The agent asked and frowned before he threw another piece of bread.  
"Well...a crowd of people ran up to me and..."  
"Said I harmed someone." Shadow ended and turned around to glare at the other. Sonic bit his lower lip and nodded. Shadow snorted and returned his attention to the birds. 'Stupid humans stupid mobians stupid people.' He thought furiously and sonic could tell. The quills sharpen in anger then lower with a tint of sadness.  
"Anyways...I brought some food." Sonic said in attempt to change subject. He put forward the chilidogs but got no reaction.

"Do you believe them?" Shadow whispered loud enough for hero to hear. The hero groaned and leaned back on the bench. He hated these serious conversations especially when he wasn't sure what to say. So many people that told him Shadow had done it including disturbing comments.

"I didn't but...it's not like you give me the trust to believe you either. This is my own judgment of you but I wanted to make sure..."  
"That I didn't harm anyone." Shadow interrupted again while growling. This time he was at a point to strangle the hero. Disappointment was overwhelming, another confirmation that he couldn't trust anyone. Sonic was just being the hero again, of course he along with everyone else would swallow their lies.

"To make sure you weren't hurt."  
Shadow holds his breath and stared at the ground. He couldn't progress what sonic just said it was absurd! Shadow is the ultimate life form! Nothing could hurt him, he would heal no matter how critical the damage that was inflicted on him. He crushed the bread in his hands. 'insult? joke? Teasing? Mocking? What does the faker want!?' Shadow was having an inner conflict and sonic let him be. Upon seeing how the quills flexed he could tell that. Sonic never had problems to express himself. But shadow kept everything locked up. The hero could just imagine how chaotic a mind would get with that. Like having a war within you self, one side that wanted well and one that didn't.

The past Maria was keeping his good side alive, that the only thing that stopped him from destroying earth. Sonic bet shadow wished to do things like kill people destroy scare maybe even torture them. Also certain he saw something in those crimsons eyes of hate, a killers eyes and he glared at him. Sonic knew shadow wanted to kill him ever since they met.  
But the hero couldn't understand how shadow was able to contain such anger.

"I am the ultimate life form nothing hurts me faker." The ebony hedgehog tremble slightly hoping it went unnoticed, it didn't.  
"Well...even if I am the fastest thing alive..doesn't mean I can't fall." Sonic pointed out but felt like continue this conversation no longer. It was a dead end shadow wouldn't open up anytime soon.  
"But look I got the food."  
Shadow turned around and stared at the chilidog with a disgusted expression.  
"What is that?"  
"It's called chilidog! Taste it its good!" Sonic smiled convincing but then again shadow remember the times sonic tried to trick him to do certain things. The cobalt hedgehog smiled as shadow took the chilidog. He sniffed it a little and enjoyed the scent. But not as much as he liked Sonics scent but that would be weird to say.

The agent sighed in defeat and took a bite. His taste buds activated and shadow loved it. He closed his eyes and continues to eat in satisfaction. The chilidog went down faster than he thought and soon looked over to his rival. Sonic had one for himself but couldn't ignore those crimson eyes that seemed to beg for more. Or at least kind a looked likes it.  
"Here I already ate." Sonic lie but observed shadows quills once more. He smiled as it flexed in a way when you are happy.  
"You sure?" Shadow asked and took the handed chilidog.  
"Of course I would have eaten it up by now if I didn't." Sonic lied a little there he wanted the company of the elder hedgehog when he ate.

Shadow told him before that he didn't need food to live. But for some reason it looked like the agent had been starving all along. However his rival consumed that food as if he had been starving.  
Shadow finished quickly and looked over to sonic who was in deep thoughts. 'Weird I didn't know faker could think.'  
"I am done now show me where Rouge lives."  
"Actually.." Sonic stammered nervously. "I don't know where she lives."  
Shadow flinched and tightens his fists. His crimsons eyes glared furiously at his rival who was fake smiling.

"Why did you take me here?" He needed an answer surely it must be a trap of some sort. Shadow scanned the area expecting someone or something to appear that wanted to harm him. He couldn't sense nor see anyone nearby.  
"Sheesh shadow, I just said it to make you come with me and eat. But I do know where she works."  
"So do I, G.U.N." Shadow frowned and stood up. He headed off but was soon stopped by sonic. He had a tight grip of his arm, this annoyed shadow quite a lot. Sonic wanted far to much attention or simply enjoyed to trick him.

"Shadow wait...She is just partly working there. I saw her most of time at that bar. She told me it was more of a hobby because she earns a lot of money from organization. But had lots of time to do what she wanted between missions."  
Shadow gritted his teeth he wasn't aware of this. The bat was often gone he assumed she was on missions but off duty. She never told him about it. Was she afraid he would get jealous? It actually was unfair very unfair, but he couldn't hate Rouge for it. It was the commander fault for giving him nonstop missions. The reason he wanted to go to her place was to rest. He has rested now and didn't have to go there.

"Forget it faker I changed my mind." Shadow yanked his arm free.  
"Wait where are you going then? Home?"  
"I don't have a home." Shadow replied before he took off. Now sonic could chase after him but he let him be. The hero was certain he would meet his rival soon enough. The ebony hedgehog crossed his ways more than he could count. But if he really wanted to find shadow he could just go to G.U.N and ask them. 

Suddenly Sonic yelped in pain. His chest felt like burning or maybe it was his heart? He touched his chest but found no trace of wound. It hurt so much he was confused of what was happening. Another feeling was added wait he recognized this one. It was spreading and he backed off holding his head in his hands.  
"What's happening.." He squeezed his eyes shut, the pain it didn't fade. Things started to blur as the weird feeling reached to his head.

If shadow just stayed a bit longer…. he needed help it hurt so much. The hero tripped and fell, he landed on his back but didn't even notice it. Nobody would show up anytime soon shadow scared them off. It was getting difficult to breathe and move like he was in water. He panicked it was terrifying, a whine escaped him. Sonic tried to call for help but nothing other than pained noise left his mouth. He couldn't form it to word nothing seemed to work properly. He felt trapped in his own body. Never had he felt this much pain it forced him to cry. His eyes was locked to the sky by darkness seemed to swallow him. Like he was pulled back further down his mind. His vision of the sky was gone and he couldn't see anything. It was dark but the pain was gone, where was he? He found himself in this dark abyss. The body was working just fine now and maybe he couldn't see them move he certainly could feel it. He put his hand on his cheek to make sure and indeed the palm touched him. So he really was somewhere, but where.

These weird things always begin an adventure. But it all was felt so so.. wrong the place was familiar. He had been here before? Sonic would have remembered if he was in some pitch black place. He frowned, this was a rather boring way to start an adventure.  
But he had to get out of there but where to start? He ran straight forward but didn't feel the wind he usually would. The place was empty endless and the ground was flat. Sonic slowed down until he stopped. He was sucked into this dark place. There had to be a way out but saw no trace of it. 

"Are you lost?" A wicked voice asked behind him. Sonic turned around and was almost blinded by the light. He closed his eyes but soon adjusted to it and opens them again.  
Before him stand a hedgehog in super form very much like himself. But the quills were in a mess, he had the same attire as himself but it looked frayed. The eyes were red just as how super sonic is. But there was something off with it. The red eyes had circle details around it making him look insane. He smirked amused showing off his sharp fangs. Sonic didn't need anyone to tell him "this guy is evil" it was obvious. But what was disturbing was the fact that he looked just like him in super form, well close to it.  
"Who are you ?" Sonic asked and flinched as the other hedgehog began to laugh like a maniac. The hero was trembling why? Something back in his head was scared of him. He has seen him before but when and where? The golden hedgehog stopped laughing and wore the smirk again.  
"I am you… But people call me fleetway."


	8. Chapter 8

"Fleetway that means.."  
"Misunderstood." They said in union and the golden hedgehog smirked wider. The name was a word in hedgehog language, and sonic was one of the very few that could speak it. Fleetway tilted his head and licked his lips in excitement. He had waited so long to see his other self. The golden hedgehog scratched his head violently causing his hand to cut on the sharp quills but didn't react to it. The glove got torn apart in the progress and blood seep out from the wounds.

"This is GREAT! this is GREAT!"He laughed and clapped his hands slowly. Sonic tremble in fear and backed off. Fleetway pointed his finger at sonic as he approached.

"You! You are back! I knew you would..you couldn't just leave me here. Missed me?" He put his hands behind his back and leaned forward eyeing the other.  
Sonic gulped someone told him to run someone in the back of his mind screaming to run. Sounded like a young child and it was crying in desperation. Sonic put his head in his hands, the voice refused to stop. It started to beg him beg him to run and never return.

"There is nowhere to run." Fleetway suddenly said, the voice gasped and went completely silent. Sonic looked up and flinched as the bloody hand tried to reach out for him but went through. Fleetway frowned displeased that sonic was merely a phantom.

Sonic froze in shock not because the hand went through but that the other tried to reach for him. Fleetway remained silent while he observed his hand as if it was something wrong with it .The hero breathe out in relief that fleetway couldn't touch him. But he has never NEVER been this scared in his entire life. The worst part was he didn't know why. Fleetway returned his attention to the hedgehog and chuckle amused. He circles around sonic while scanning him up and down. Then suddenly stopped in front of him and scratched his muzzle.

"I see." He finally spoke and made eye contact with the hero. Sonic decided to put this fear behind and face the golden hedgehog. His cobalt ears perked at the sound of dripping sound. The blood hit the ground and it echo through the endless abyss. Sonic tried to ignore his heart rate pound louder and louder but he didn't want to follow that child voice. It was tempting but whatever mobian that was in front of him already said it loud and clear. "There is nowhere to run." Sonic couldn't let fear control him and for some reason Fleetway looked entertained.

"Don't you remember me?" Fleetway asked with a sad tone. He assumed sonic been joking all along but he wasn't running...  
Sonic growled and pinned his ears backwards threatening. He turned his fear into anger instead, trying to gain some guts.  
"I don't remember you." Sonic replied and tighten his fists. He never pay attention to quills this much but thanks to shadow he did now. It explained everything about this very hedgehog before him. This guy was downright insane; everything to him was to slaughter. Now sonic wasn't the one to judge someone on first glance,but he didn't need more proof.

"No..no..NONONOOO!" Fleetway screamed in a twisted way and began to pull out his golden quills. He hissed growled and screamed as he walked around in a shaky way. Suddenly he went completely silent and froze on the spot his back facing sonic.  
The only sound was the dripping almost flowing blood hit the ground. Sonic heart pounded faster now and he could just feel the atmosphere getting thicker with bloodlust and negative energy.

"You left me here to rot!" Fleetway yelled and the golden quills grew back sharper than before.  
"But." He laughed and put up one finger in the air.  
"You gave me company." Fleetway shake his finger back and forth.  
"Tsk,tsk,tsk..." He started to laugh and turned around. The golden hedgehog smirked and snapped his finger. Out from the darkness a dark blue almost black hedgehog appears. This again looked very much like sonic.

"This is a very disturbing nightmare." Sonic fake smiled as he realized the hedgehog didn't have pupils.  
"Oh ..no no no Nooo...this is not a nightmare. Say hello to dark sonic." Fleetway said and waved to sonic while the dark one didn't react. Yup the guy was a nut case.  
"Oh you two never met before aaw...Nooow" fleetway smacked his lips and began to pat the dark furred hedgehog on his head.

"This guy is insane you can't ask him anything.." Fleetway grinned and poked darks head repeatedly.  
"See stone dead!" The golden hedgehog laughed and put his hands up in the air like some victory call. Sonic was speechless he wasn't used to speak with a madman. Well if you don't include Eggman in that category but he had at least some sanity. The hero frowned as the golden hedgehog return to poke the other singing. "Stone dead stone dead stone dead~"

But the dark hedgehog didn't react at all he was just standing there like a statue. If he had pupils he might be glaring at sonic at the moment, he wouldn't know. Sonic was now fed up with these games.  
"Get to the point!" He yelled loudly making it echo through the abyss. Fleetway looked at sonic for a while and blinked like he was confused. But soon a wide smirk formed on his muzzle.

"AH HA!" He suddenly pointed at him before he shoved away the dark hedgehog that simply vanishes.  
"You are becoming like him!" Fleetway mused and eagerly and claps his hands together. This time it was Sonics turn to blink confused.  
"Who?"  
"Argh! The black one! The...hmhnn" fleetway mumbled and tried to locate the memory piece of the hedgehog. He walked back and forth dwelling for quite some time before he snapped his fingers.

"Shadow! Shadow the ultimate fake form!" Fleetway began to giggle which finally turned into a maniac laugher. If it wasn't for the fact that sonic was scared as shit he would have laughed along. But then again it was quite a mean comment and for some reason it made him angrier instead.

"What about him?" Sonic asked and couldn't relate to what was going on in fleetways head.  
"You act sooo...sooo..." He observed sonic looking up and down and smirked as the hero crossed his arms.  
"Sooo?"  
"Serious! And not to mention! You have amnesia!" The golden hedgehog chuckled before he stretched his arms. Sonic sighed and now realized damn how annoying that hedgehog is. 'This has to be how shadow feels when I was fooling around with him.' Sonic thought but now got brought back to reality. Or as much reality you can get in this damned place.  
"Amnesia?"  
"Yesssss...you don't remember me! You should remember me! We are friendssss...or were friends...? Hmm..." Fleetway began to dwell into that subject. Sonic was so mentally frustrated now more than scared. The golden hedgehog didn't show anything to get scared about really. But he couldn't underestimate the other he clearly was strong if he could be in super form. Besides he couldn't really harm him at the moment. Which he was very thankful for..  
"Oh yes I made you a little angry...oh well you are back that's all that matters now!" He said and started to romp around like it was nothing really.  
"Hold on! Why was I angry?"  
"I won't tell! You will only get angry again and leave us." Fleetway answer playful and didn't care that sonic already was angry.

"I am leaving either way you tell me or not!"  
Sonic gasped as fleetway appear in front of him close enough to feel his breathe. He was furious and growled. In the end he tried to bite his neck but didn't work. Fleetway tremble in anger and pulled away and glared at the frightened emerald eyes.

"I haven't seen you in years! You can't leave! I won't let you!" He screamed and sonic couldn't honestly tell him..that he didn't even know how to leave.

"I want you! I need you!...I love you.." He smirked yes this hedgehog was totally obsessed. Now sonic was used to this "I love you speech" because of Amy. But this was sick and disturbing! First of the guy was completely insane and looked like him and was living in some sort of nightmare...but also because he was a guy! He did NOT swing that way! Of course he didn't mind other people being. But it's like putting together the most unattractive traits on a hedgehog for him.

But even if fleetway was female would be the same result. Wrong! Wrong wrong wrong! That hedgehog scared him and disgusts him. Fleetway tried to grap him again but without success, instead he pointed at him.

"You will be mine forever sonic! And when I get out! I will claim you mine or I will destroy everyone and everything! You are mine YOU HEAR ME!? MINE!"  
The last thing sonic saw was the angry red eyes glaring at him before he was pulled out from the darkness.

Sonic found himself in a bed and sat up quickly still feeling his heart rate pound fast.  
"Sonic!" The hero turned his head and got greeted with a death hug from. Sonic gasped and tried to pull away, everything was so confusing. Just two seconds ago he was talking to a madman, now Amy was hugging him like no tomorrow. He tried to progress what was going on, soon enough she let go and cried.  
"We thought you were dead!" She sniffles and rubbed her eyes while trembling.

Sonic stared at the female hog that was having a break down. 'What was happening?'  
A red echidna joined in and smirked down on the hero.  
"I knew you wouldn't give up." Knuckles chuckled and ruffle Sonics head. Sonic was shocked over everyone's behavior. Here he wakes up from the most bizarre dream and get a welcome back as if he were DEAD!

"What is going on?" He looked around and could already tell it was an hospital. White walls peeping sound and...needles!

"You were found in station square of central park. Doctors said you were having a seizure but it didn't stop until you got to the hospital. Then you didn't wake up and they didn't know what to do!..." Amy sniffles and hugged sonic once more but gentle this time. The hero sighed and hugged back, he felt bad for worrying his friends.

"They didn't know what to do because something prevented you to wake up. They suspected brain damages because of the seizure...but none seemed to be the case. When you hadn't woken up for a two days they declared that you were in coma."  
"How long have I been in coma?..." Sonic asked feeling awful for missing so much time already.  
"Four days..." Amy whimper and pulled away she was completely wasted after the couple of days of worry.

"Where is tails?"  
"The kid decided to become a doctor. He had this theory that...aaah doesn't matter you are back."  
Cobalt ears perked at the buzzing sound of the tv. He turned his attention to it commercial playing up for him.

"So the electricity is back."  
"Yes it is...but when you went down well...people started to panic. Your condition was on the news and when you were confirmed in coma..." Amy said and swallows.  
" They blamed shadow for everything and they are currently hunting him down!" Knuckles growled he never liked that black hedgehog but that didn't mean it was his fault. The people claimed that shadow been with the hero just before or during the whole seizure incident. This made him the target for the public media. In the end G.U.N got involved and since Shadow is their agent something had to be done about it.

"What!?" Sonic yelled and jumped out from the bed. His attention turned to the screen as the news started.

"Reports say that shadow the hedgehog is still on free foot. Therefore warning to all citizens! Stay indoors until G.U.N secured the threat. "the woman paused and switched papers and returned her eyes to the camera. "There is no news of sonic the world known hero. So far said to be in coma but we keep on updating."

Sonic frowned at the mention of his rival, he wasn't a threat! Shadow was his friend their friend! How dare they treat him as a wanted criminal!? After all the good things he has done shouldn't it be enough to convince them that he hadn't harmed the hero?  
"Why haven't you guys done anything about it!? Shadow could be hurt or worse!"  
"We have been more worried about you! Shadow can take care of himself we all know that!" Knuckles defended and turned his head to the door that open.  
In came Tails pissed tired and sad at the same time. He walked straight into sonic and groaned, but soon his eyes tear up upon seeing his brother.

"S..sonic!?" He tried to stay collected but jumped into Sonics arms and cried.  
"I thought I lost you! I really thought.." He buries his face in the peach chest and sniffle. For sonic this just felt like an hour ago he seen his friends. It was all weird to meet them like this but he didn't complain. It was good to know that they really cared about him. But who cared about shadow? Rouge and omega?

Sonic patted tails head to calm him down; the hero was close to cry as well. Everyone was so sad it was affecting him as well.  
"I hate to break it here but I must find shadow." Sonic said and the kitsune nodded understanding and forced himself to let go.

"We will help! I heard he is still in town! G.U.N is trying to corner him they have secured all off roads of the city." Tails said and with that said the hog was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author Note: Thank you for the reviews! I been having quite some fun writing these chapters although some parts is kind a sad. This chapter is quite long hopefully not to long :) enjoy!**

* * *

**Three days earlier**  
The electricity was now fully back online and shadow was enjoying his free time outside the town. He put his hand on the ebony belly purring softly to himself. The food made him feel so much better and he was tempting to buy some more of it. Well if he even had money to begin with. Last time he tried to buy something it ended up with a failure. It was empty and he wasn't even sure if he even got paid anymore. After thinking about it for quite some time it was decided. He was going to buy some food, Chilidog to be precise. Shadow had located the place sonic had bought the food before. So he went straight for it and hoped nobody would recognize him.

When he arrived he carefully looked around. First of "people" secondly "G.U.N" and third "sonic" there weren't so many humans around so he decided to take the risk.  
He went over to the hot dog stand and nervously bit his lower lip. Shadow never had done something like this before.

"Ehm two chilidogs please." He ordered and got a cheerful smile from the worker.  
"Alright I am on it." She said either not knowing who he was or didn't care. He waited patiently and soon the chilidogs were placed before him. He gave the woman the card and put the code in. She sighed and gave back the card.

"I am sorry but your card is empty." She sadly looked at the agent who wanted to go straight to G.U.N and demand the money.

"I apologize I didn't know that. I didn't want to put that effort on you to make them." Shadow said and looked down to the ground in shame.

"Don't worry you will get them for free." She smiled and handed them over. Shadow blinked confused why she would do that!?

"Why?" He asked trying to hide the fact that he was happy, but also a bit suspicious. Either she worked for someone and tried to poison him or thought he was sonic.  
"Well I don't mind giving it for free to you. I mean you are shadow after all I think it's fair enough that you get free food now and then. You work hard to make our city a better place. Besides you looked awful hungry."

Shadow couldn't stop the tiny smile that formed on his muzzle. He liked this woman already she was sweet just as Maria, Understanding and she wasn't scared.

"Thank you." Shadow replied and how much he liked to see that human smile. He saw to many similarities with Maria. Although this woman had brown hair put in a ponytail and a cap on her head. Typical red and white cloths and a bit of an accent he couldn't place. He could guess her age would be around 20-30 and quite attractive as well. He looked at her and spotted her name tag "Sandra"  
"You welcome please tell me what you think."

Shadow nodded and took a bite he ended the first one quickly and looked back to the human.  
"It's really good." He answers honestly.  
"That's good to hear!" She smiled; shadow wished he had met her sooner. He felt awful comfortable in her company. Before he could take another bite of another Chilidog two black cars pulled over wearing the big G.U.N tag on it.  
"Agent shadow you have to come with us or we have to use the hard way." Shadow frowned and took his first bite of the other Chilidog.

The woman decided to interact and got out from the hot dog stand. She looked anything but happy.  
"You!" She pointed at the man who gave her a cold glare.  
"I know your organization very well and I don't like your methods this is my place and you are not welcome here!"

Shadow gulped as the woman had dared to face them. He shoves the rest of the Chilidog in his mouth and gently pulled back the female.

"Don't worry I will be fine." Shadow saluted to the one in charge feeling no need to fight back. He assumed it was just one of these "missions" again. And when he was at it he could ask for the money he was promised. But he wasn't really in shape for missions, but he does rather go with them than make a fuss about it. Could possibly ask for more time but he was certain the commander didn't have that patience. The card must have given off his location but he didn't mind that.

The man however picked up his communicator.  
"Sir we have a situation..." He turned around and talked with the "commander" shadow assumed. Instead of eavesdropping the soldier he turned his attention to Sandra.  
"I will pay back when I got the money." Shadow assured making the woman smile.  
"No silly it was for free you can stop by anytime for more." She said and reached out to shake his hand but didn't get that far before a loud 'PANG' was heard. Crimson eyes widened as the woman fell. Shadow reached out for Sandra but it was too late, she hit the ground without a sound. The agent in shock stared at her; he just talked to her seconds ago and now... Blood was flowing down her forehead, she was gone he shot her. Shadow tried to progress what just happen why it happen. He quickly went down on his knees trying to locate a pulse. He found none and began to tremble holding back the emotions that was growing.

"Please no..no no." He panicked and couldn't force the tears back, it was too sudden. Shadow gently started to shake the dead body as if she would wake up. She was dead but he refused to admit it. History repeats itself...his vision flashed back to Marias death for a millisecond making him whines. He looked back at the woman he didn't have any time to say goodbye…but maybe that was for the best. She would have suffered if it was a slow painful death.

But there had been a chance to save her if the bullet hadn't struck in such killing spot. He could have saved her! If he just had paid attention to the soldier he could have saved her! Or if he never showed up to begin with she would still be alive! Why did everyone die that got to close to him? He put his head in his hands and sobbed. Shadow the ultimate life form couldn't save ONE human AGAIN! What was all that power for if he could never save the ones he cared for? Yes! He might have just met this woman but he never met any human on earth that was this nice to him.

Anger started to grow but he had to keep it in. If he didn't he might destroy the whole city starting with the G.U.N soldiers.  
Shadow gasped as the soldier kicked him hard in the gut sending him flying until his body hit the ground. The agent ignored the pain and manages to convulsive sit up.  
"Aren't you the ultimate life form? So why are you crying?" The murderer smirked and pointed the gun at shadow. The crimson eyes stared at the ground he didn't want to see them. The urge to kill them was getting stronger each second. He tried to shut out reality but he couldn't, his mind didn't allow him to. First Maria now Sandra was he really the ultimate life form?

"Mariaa..." He wailed and hid his eyes behind the palms. The ebony hedgehog curled to a ball and tremble. Shadow felt so pathetic stupid emotions! He shouldn't care about anyone or anything. He didn't know the woman that was killed; there was no reason to be sad about? The problem was he was scared not of the soldiers or anyone else for that matter. He was scared of himself, he was on the edge. Keep that anger in control was near to impossible. His quills flexed and pointed threatening upwards. He couldn't control it any longer and snapped out from the curled ball with a wide smirk on his muzzle.

"You want to see an ultimate life form in action? Well you asked for it!" He growled and dashed towards the soldiers and with the mere force sent them flying. Shadow chuckled entertained before he approached the murderer. His subconscious made sure the humans wasn't killed but surely injured.

The killer groaned in pain as he had hit his head on the car. Shadow chuckled at his discomfort humans certainly is fragile. The crimson eyes spotted the gun on the ground and picked it up.

"This is a killing machine...made for only one purpose." Shadow mumble and smirked wider as he pointed it at the man. The human got suddenly terrified and put his hands in the air.  
"Pl..please don't shoot!" He begged causing shadow to frown.

"You killed a woman an innocent woman! Just like what happen to Maria! You...you deserve to die." Shadow smirked and was about to pull the trigger but instead froze in the last second. He quickly threw away the gun as if it burned his hand. So close..so close he killed another man for revenge. This was nothing Maria would have wanted! Neither did he! Shadow wished to save lives not take them. Why was it so hard for people to understand that? But being pressured like this...it almost set him off.

"Why..." Shadow growled furiously as the man tried to crawl over to the gun. The hedgehog went over and crushed his back to the ground preventing him to go further. His hand was just inches from the gun and the murderer looked up terrified.  
"Why did you kill her!?"  
The human swallowed hard as sweat travel down his forehead.  
"She was in the way...and...a threat to the community." He answers and groaned as shadow put more weight on his back.  
"A threat to the community!? How!? Because she talked to me?" Shadow hissed and trembles in anger tempted again to end his life.  
"Tell me!?" Shadow yelled loudly but got no respond. Suddenly another pang and the bullet hit shadows shoulder. The surprise gunshot caused him to fall down to the ground beside the murderer. One of the other soldiers managed to recover from the previous blow. The soldier grinned as he managed to hit the target even with the blurred vision. Shadow hissed in pain and slowly got up on his knees.

"Don't move! or I will shoot again!" The man said while the killer stood up and kicked shadow again.  
"Yes she was getting to close to you shadow the ultimate life form. And you are under arrest!"  
Shadow growled as a response and before the humans could handcuff him he disappear

He reappears in an alley not too far away but got awful dizzy because of the chaos control. Shadow still wasn't in perfect shape for a teleport especially when he currently only wore two rings.

But what was worse was the guilt. That woman was dead because of HIM! But why was all of this happening? He was working for G.U.N why would they attack him plus an innocent person!? What had he done to piss them off!?

He had to find out what was going on, however wasn't emotional stable at the moment. If he met another of those soldiers he possibly would end them. His thoughts returned to the woman again and he hit the wall in frustration. Shadow shakes his head to get rid of the thoughts. If he got upset again he would lose himself to anger or grief. The ultimate life form rubbed his eyes getting rid of the remaining tears and tries to focus on the situation. He shoves away the thoughts of Sandra along with Maria. Both were to emotional subjects at the moment and he didn't have afforded with another break down.  
All he knew for sure was that G.U.N wasn't calling him for missions.

Shadow heard a swirling noise from the sky most likely a helicopter at least two of them. They were searching for him the, G.U.N tag was nicely placed on its sides. But he didn't need to see that to know it belonged to the organization. His heart rate increased they were heading his way most likely using heat cameras.  
"All units to Central Square! Unknown Woman Cooperated with shadow is now eliminated! But the hedgehog is still loose." He heard the murderer say making him growl furiously catching their attention to the alley.

But he soon took off quickly skating down the roads. Shadow gritted his teeth as he skate past a couple of soldiers. He never knew that G.U.N had so many soldiers! They were everywhere! Gun bettles swarming the area took chase when he was spotted.

He was almost out from the city but was shocked to see G.U.N blocking the way. The organization had planned this through. F-6t Big Foot was lined up on the roads and fired its missiles when he got close to their range. Shadow growled and made a sharp U turn before anything managed to hit him. He faced the bettles that rapid fire without proper target. Shadow saw no need to hold back against them and homing attacked them one and another.

"There he is Fire!" The soldiers yelled and didn't seem to care that they destroyed the surroundings in the progress. Shadow easily evaded them but didn't notice the Diablon until it fire its laser beam nearby causing him to crash into a building. The agent groaned in pain but got up on his feet quickly as the Diablon charged another beam. G.U.N had done so many improvements on the robots since the Ark incident. It was difficult for him to keep up the pace, Shadow hissed as a bullet brushed past his muzzle.

If he just had his full chaos energy… then he would be able to teleport past the robots and out from the city. Shadow cursed at the fact that he had used the teleport recklessly before. He could fight back and possibly force his way through. But he couldn't risk it; there was no way he would get past unharmed. It was like an army, and he didn't even have the energy to begin with.  
He had to find Rouge or Omega quickly that would be the best bet to escape and find out what was going on. Unless commander already sent them away. It wouldn't surprise him at all, because they were his loyal...friends? Shadow bit his lower lip and kept dodging the bullets as he zigzag through the city.

There were other citizens outside but thankfully for them the soldiers was trained enough to not accidentally shoot them. It wasn't like they were storm troopers with aiming skills like a blind kid.

Another Diablon shot at him but missed and instead hit a smaller building. G.U.N didn't care AT ALL! Shadow gasped as it fell down and possibly killed all the citizens in it. After two hours constant chase he found a hiding place to take a breath. Shadow was getting exhausted, G.U.N pressured him to much and the agent didn't want to harm the humans. Shadow growled as the wound in his shoulder made itself known.

It wasn't that bad because it already healed a bit but it hurt no less. His ebony ears perked as a robot approached him. Shadow growled at first as it appearance looked more like a gun hunter. But soon the shape became clear and the hedgehog mentally smiled…Finally some luck.

"Omega!" Shadow relaxed as he got better view of his teammate.

"Could you tell me what is going on? G.U.N been attacking me and others without clear motive!" Shadow gritted his teeth but the robot remained silent.  
The hedgehog slowly walked over to the robot and flinched in shock as omegas sharp hands was replaced with rotary cannons. The robot aimed the destructive weapons at the hedgehog without hesitation.

"Omega..it's me shadow..." He put up his hands while slowly backing off. Without warning it fire at him, shadow put up his arms to protect himself. He gasped as most of the bullets went through his flesh and causing him to almost fall down by the pressure. The bullets had hit his arms hips and a bit of his left leg but nothing critical.

The robot reloads but shadow didn't wait for it to fire again. Omega most likely been reprogrammed to hunt him down. Shadow whined as he forced his injured body to return to skate through the city. What did they want!? Maybe he should turn himself in? By the look of it they just wanted to kill him. He couldn't be sure but if they wanted him dead the robot would have done a killing blow. Unless Omega still had some minor senses left.

His chaos energy was getting dangerously low; he had to find another hiding place quickly! He growled as rain drops hit his body. The sky was covered in dark clouds and it soon rain poured down. His black pelt was soaked wet and put more weight causing him to slow down.

But shadow soon enough found an abandoned warehouse and didn't hesitate to jump through the window. Shadow hissed in pain as he realized that the glass had cut him. This weak chaos energy didn't protect his body anymore. Usually he would be able to stand against bullets. Or any other attack for that matter!

But not only damages got to him his emotions was going high wire again, he was so stressed. Shadow closed his eyes and tried to calm down, easier said than done.  
He had to know why they wanted him arrested or killed! A sick feeling hit his stomach forcing him to hunch over and puke up the food. His body tried to push out more of it although there was nothing left. Shadow panted loudly and backed off as he tried to regain control of his upset belly, he rubbed his eyes before he wiped his lips.

"Damn it." He groaned painfully as the throat was now burning. Shadow grimace at the aftertaste before he scanned the area, there was a lot of boxes here and there. Didn't look like the place been active for years. But it was just a matter of time before G.U.N located the area. Shadow had after all left blood tracks here and there and it wasn't hard to spot. But then again the rain might wash it away if he was lucky. But luck was the least thing on his side.

He slowly sat down on one of the boxes and turned to tend his damages. Omega was surely a powerful robot, even if he was created by Eggman himself. G.U.N managed to do a lot of improvements on him more than shadow thought they were capable of. The scientist had forced the humankind to put more effort with developing killing machines.

Shadow squeezed his eyes shut as his body rejected the bullets and pushed it out. Now the chaos energy wasn't mainly focused in fleeing it could take its full attention to heal its owner.  
Shadow inhaled the dusty air in the warehouse, it was quiet and calm. His good start of the day had turned into something so horrible. He hugged himself and covered the wounds with his hands while tremble slightly.

"I have endured worse..." Shadow whispered to himself but wasn't sure if that was true. He been on earth for three years during that time treated like an invader and a monster. Used for others selfish wishes, manipulating lies and confuse him to get what they want. So many people around him that wanted him dead. Little to no social interaction without involving business. Now a woman he came across he got awful fond with was brutally murdered before his eyes.

Just as Maria…murdered! But when that happen he was launched down to earth after losing everything he had. Then land on the planet just to be forced down in a freezing pod. He had been so scared when those soldiers activated the freezing pod. But the fear along with his true personality got drowned in that amnesia. Shadow became a complete different person thanks to that.

When he finally was freed revenge consumed him to completely destroy earth.  
But back then his energy had been at the top. He withstands these types of attacks from G.U.N. As well didn't care to kill someone that was in his way.  
How confusing things became when he unlocked his memories. Two personalities in the same person, he still had problem to fuse them together. Sometimes he wished he could just let go of the "good" part of himself. That past innocent version of himself smiling cheerfully just likes the hero himself. That Shadow knew how to use his power but never did the thought cross his mind to inflict it on a living being. The only thing he wanted was to be with Maria, his sister maybe even mother figure. He got her attention and affection ever since he was a hoglet. Shadow closed his eyes in a drowsy way as a flashback played up with Maria embracing him. He remembers the scent the safety and happiness that seemed to shine from her. How her patting would make him purr and wag his tail. Never did his quills harm her in fact they were just as soft as his fur in her presence. Shadow flinched as a lighting struck and forcefully brought him back to reality.

He opens his eyes just to see the dark dusty warehouse. This is what his life looks like now and to compare that with the past just made things worse.

Maybe he should just return to be evil again and fight alongside Eggman. They were after all somewhat related.  
Shadow snorted at the thought and got up on his feet. His crimson eyes spotted a dirty fabric in one of the boxes. He went over and pulled it out in hope to find something to cover up his injures. But instead found a arber jacket , shadow sighed he wasn't a big fan of cloths. But he could possibly blend in with that. The hedgehog coughed as the dust was released as he put it on.

It was a human sized jacket so it was covering his legs and he had to roll up the arms. He never realized how small he really was until now. The hood was not big enough though so he couldn't hide his head which he mostly wanted. Shadow walked around pulling out things from the boxes here and there to find something useful. He smirked as he found the perfect cover, an umbrella. Suddenly lighting struck nearby, making the warehouse lit up for a millisecond.

His ears perked up at the sound of an explosion, the lighting struck something. Shadow went over to the window and saw dark smoke further away; it possibly hit one of the many machines G.U.N chased him with. Shadow smirked at the thought the weather was with him. But that didn't mean he was out of the danger zone. The ebony hedgehog went over to the broken window and carefully climbed out. He unfolded the black umbrella and walked casually down the pavement. His fur stood up when he saw the soldiers far ahead coming his way. His heart beat faster and hoped that his shoes didn't give away the disguise; he angled the umbrella to cover his head. The soldiers ran past him without paying much attention.

The hedgehog sighed in relief at their stupidity, but the problem now was how to find Rouge. Sonics home was a bit outside the city and G.U.N already locked all possible paths out from station square.

But then again…he didn't want to meet his rival anytime soon, although at the same time….

needed his help.


	10. Chapter 10

It had been three days since Sandra's death and shadow was completely lost. He did however find Rouges home...eventually. But the soldiers were there and expected his arrival and not did the umbrella fool them. Ever since then he had been chased around the city with few moments of break. The citizens weren't out much or at all afraid to meet him. Like he was some sort of cold thirsty killer, which was ready to kill anyone at sight. Then again he wasn't sure what the media said about him. But whatever it was it couldn't be good especially when gun have full control of the news. Thankfully the agent was able to predict the moves of gun. After years working for them it kind of exposed a typical pattern for him to predict most of their moves. This also made him feel stupid for even showing up at rouge place. It was very likely that gun patrolled the area. But as any other race on the damned planet, hope just had to try anyways.

Still without answer whatsoever of what was going on. He tried to make a few of soldiers talk. But even if he threatens to kill them they remained silent. Gun knew him to well, but it was the commander that made fun of the fact that he hated to kill anyone. How easy it been when he was on killing spree in the past. Shadow ignored the comments from the commaner, nobody else than him even dared to make fun of him. Unless he weak and exposed giving a chance for other soldiers to do so. Sometimes he was sure that G.U.N wanted him to kill innocent people again. But the whole point is they knew he wouldn't kill them. This made it much easier for the organization to take him down slowly.

Which came to question where the hero of Mobius was? It was his city after all and if he saw guns methods he would stop them. Shadow expected someone to help him at this point. Or offer him help, it wasn't like he didn't have companionship outside G.U.N. Or maybe everyone he thought had a slight care of him was all a lie. Shadow tried to shake the thought out of his head. The negativity seemed to drain him off more energy than the soldiers.

Shadow frowned displeased at the lack of hope. He has been inside this particular container for a few minutes now. To his amazing luck of course had to be filled with junk. Shadow tried to ignore the smell as he was now sitting down. This place filled with nothing but garbage. One good thing is that it kept the soldiers away for now. His body had healed by the old wounds but gotten new ones as time passed. But it wasn't near as bad as the encounter with Omega.

He have seen the robot afar scanning locations he been like a track dog. It wouldn't take long before he found this place. But shadow couldn't give a damn at the moment. He needed rest and turned around inside the container to find something to hide him with. He could always dig himself into the mass of junk, but he didn't want to get his wounds more dirty than it already was. But to his luck he found an empty old box. Shadow sighed before he pulled the box over to a more clean part of the container and put it over himself. He didn't like to hide under it but if a soldier was to stumble over this place he had to. However he could feel his quills poke the box almost going through it.  
The hedgehog tried to relax his quills but found this impossible. The stress has been unbearable these couple of days. He wouldn't find himself relaxing anytime soon. This caused him to heal slower than he should.

Shadow growled and pulled his quills downwards feeling it cut his hands in the progress. Angle it downwards hurt a lot, this was not one of his better ideas. It got a point where he had to let go. His hands were covered in cuts and blood. This reminded him that his black fur was pale and green. Shadow groaned and rubbed his hands against his chest to get rid of the blood. This made him feel more disgusted though. But better that than on the junk. The hedgehog sighed lightly to himself and curled into a ball or tried to. He had to rest before someone decides to show up.

But shadow didn't know what to do once he was awake. His pride told him to fight while another wanted to give up. What was he trying to do? Escape or fight? He couldn't answer that. He needed to think but he was running out of time judging of his body state.

Best option would be to get help but as soon as he got near a citizen they would run off screaming. He can't communicate with beings that have been manipulated by the media.  
Shadow couldn't think of a better time for gun to take him down. Before the chase he had been struggling to restore the chaos energy that kept on leaking. Shadow hadn't seen this as a problem yet. The ex-agent had been sure to somehow find solution before anything bad would happen.  
Shadow flinched at a rustling noise nearby interrupted his attempt to sleep. The hedgehog growled silently but decided to get out from the hiding place. It was pretty dark but his night vision was ultimate, still living up to his title.

His ebony ears perked as he detected faint chaos energy towards the noise. Shadow froze as he finally heard it speak.  
"Chao chao" a pitched voice whined displeased with whatever was going on.  
Shadow sighed as he was pretty sure what it was. He walked towards the noise casually without sensing any possible threats. As he expected a tiny Chao was there trying to reach out to an apple that someone had trashed. It was a dump after all, although the hedgehog didn't expect to see any Chao here.

The Chao was neutral blue with yellow tints on it a very common appearance for a little Chao. If shadow remembers correctly the creatures would stay near a lake that would have fruits nearby. If it was destroyed they would most likely die, it was few places on earth that provided the environment it needed.

Those places would usually have a bit of distance to each other. But there were other cases like adoption. And he had only seen one owning a Chao which was Cream the rabbit. Shadow didn't take much notice to the two of them. But he does recall the annoyance of the Chao would display. Pitchy noisy, basically things that reminded him why he didn't like people.

The Chao soon noticed the hedgehog but only gave an innocent look. It remained silent until shadow had gotten close enough and reached out to the fruit.  
"So this is what the fuss is all about." Shadow frowned and dropped the fruit in front of it. The Chao looked at shadow quietly and only gave a smile as respond before it started to eat. Shadow ignored the tiny levitating ball above the Chao turning heart form.

To his surprise he liked the company of the Chao. It soon finished eating and returned its attention to the hedgehog. Never had it gotten help from anyone and a sort of attachment began to develop.  
Shadow completely forgot the Chao as he spaced out again. The thoughts brought him back to the situation. What he should do and where he should go.

'First thing first I need to sleep' the shadow sighed and flinched at the added weight on his leg. His ruby eyes looked down to see the Chao hugging his leg.

First thought was to kick it off but why reject it? It was just a Chao an animal if you will, clearly it innocent thoughts was not to be blamed. The Chao clearly didn't know who he was. Plus it did remind him of the birds in central park of station square.

Shadow sighed as the Chao rubbed its face against him. The hedgehog decided to so something he might regret later. He pets the Chao making it tighten its grip and letting out a noise of happiness.  
'I really don't have time with this. The soldiers will show up at some point and this Chao won't survive a bullet.' Shadow pulled his hand away and gave the Chao a serious look.

"Let me go now I need to hide and you should leave this place. It's neither healthy nor safe for a Chao to be here."  
The Chao let go but frowned displeased. Shadow sighed before he turned around to walk back to the hiding place. The Chao didn't want shadow to leave it and wouldn't let him to. So the Chao decided to come along. It didn't take long before shadow noticed. Now it was shadows time to frown. The little Chao was crawling over to his side slowly. Other people would think it's cute, but this was shadow.

"Okay Chao how about this" shadow said making it stop.  
"IF you suddenly are capable of walking in a decent pace I will let you come along." The hedgehog smirked satisfied as he knew the baby Chao couldn't pull it off any time soon.  
The Chao turned to sit down sulking with crossed arms. Soon enough the Chao nodded and tried to stand only to fall.

"So I thought." Shadow said and entered the container again ignoring the Chao that still was outside. The ex-agent made himself comfortable in the container (as comfortable you can get in one.) He decided to go against the whole box idea since it was a failure anyways. Plus he was sure that he wouldn't achieve deep sleep meaning he should wake up if something approaches. The hedgehog yawned and closed his eyes before slowly falling asleep.

Shadow woke up an hour later hearing steps heading his way he froze but soon calmed down as he saw the tiny Chao again. But this time it was walking, it had been training all the time Shadow been sleeping. This surprised the hedgehog, he thought the Chao had left him long ago not insisting to learn how to walk. Shadow sat up slowly and groaned at how stubborn the little creature was.

"Sure you can walk but can you run?" Shadow asked expecting the Chao to give up but only got cocky smirk as answer. The baby Chao showed off with running quickly in a circle to impress him. Shadow groaned and face palmed in annoyance, of course it would try to get an owner. He underestimated the Chao, he did NOT want something so slow to come with him. He had no time for a Chao nor was the situation even appropriate for one either. It would be better off without him, he was not going to take care of such animal.

Shadow crossed his arms and frowned displeased. The Chao reflected the behavior taunting him. The Chao reaction was almost entertaining but Shadow wasn't in the best mood.

"Look..you little thing." Shadow started and notice how the Chao disliked to be called that.

"You probably don't know who I am, my name is Shadow the hedgehog. The ultimate life form, a powerful destructive creation. Right now I am chased by G.U.N…they want me either dead or captured. Even if I allow you to join me you would most likely die. They don't have mercy to beings like you especially if you are close to me." Shadow sighed and hoped that the Chao could understand him somewhat.

"I have killed tons of humans,mobians even a tiny Chao like yourself. You shouldn't come with me and-"Shadow flinched as the Chao ran up to him and hugged his arm.

The hedgehog was known to never break a promise and trying to scare off the Chao was a failure. It already made up its decision to stay with him. The ex-agent pulled away his arm to push it away the Chao, but it instead hugged his chest. Not caring of the fact that Shadow was dirty and covering in dried blood. Shadow gasped not expecting this type of reaction from it. He felt awful warm inside and gave up convincing the Chao otherwise. He put his hand on its back and rubbed it slightly. Shadow sighed as the levitating ball was heart shaped, Shadow already regretting the promise of taking it with him.

But promise was a promise Shadow groaned and leaned back on the container. "You are a very stubborn thing….but don't expect me to take care of you. I only said you could come with me nothing else." Shadow said before he fell asleep again with the little Chao on his lap.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author note: Well I finished this chapter quite fast, I really was in the mood for writing today. I hope you guys like it :)**

* * *

Sonic had been searching for Shadow everywhere but had no clue of his whereabouts. The dark hog was known to be very mysterious and hard to find if Shadow wanted to be left alone. Or well..hide in this case. The hero was frustrated of the condition the city was in, it looked more like a warzone. No wonder they warned people to stay inside. Sonic knew that the damages inflicted couldn't have been by his rival. To do so much destruction requires a lot of energy, and he was sure Shadow wasn't fully recovered. Plus lacking two Inhibitor Rings would cause his chaos energy to drain out. In turn would prevent Shadow to even achieve such destruction, but that was just a guess. Sonic have in the past underestimated his powers.

The hero decided to stop searching for him and instead charge straight to the G.U.N commander himself. This had to stop, it was even embarrassing how everyone would jump into conclusions. But then again the organization didn't seem to like Shadow too much or at all. But Sonic haven't really cared about his rival until now. The hero has only been interested in having a race with the other, not really accompany the elder hog.

Especially when Shadow was so anti-social and rude in most encounters. Sometimes Sonic wondered if he had done something wrong to piss him off. Other than times that involved teasing jokes and brawls.

Soon enough Sonic reached the destination of G.U.N facility, and without permission intruded the building. He expected complains but many of the humans was happy to see him well and alive. A few however wasn't overjoyed of his sudden appearance. Almost as if they wished he had never woken up from his coma.

"Where is the commander?!" Sonic growled making the soldiers flinch. They haven't seen Sonic like this he is after all more of a cheerful nature, so this was very new to them.

"Currently speaking with the president."

Sonic turned his attention to the owner of the voice who was sitting behind the reception. The woman lost her interest of the hog as she was already busy. She wasn't too fond with mobians especially hedgehogs she was just doing her job. So the sooner the hedgehog left the better.

Sonic frowned at the little information he got and approached the woman behind the desk. The woman sighed as she noticed that the hero was giving her an impatient look.

"Where?!"

"I am not informed with details neither allowed to tell you more even if I knew. Now run away or whatever hedgehogs do"

The hero disliked this woman a lot what an attitude, how could Shadow even work here. He took off without a warning sending a wind gust behind him that causing the papers to swirl off her desk. Sonic snickers as he hears the woman yell after him in anger.

The cobalt hedgehog zigzags through the city but could find neither president nor the commander. He skid a halt and thought through the options, he could always ask Tails for help. He might find the location of them if he hack the G.U.N computers. Surely it should tell them where they were. But that could take time and Sonic felt he already wasted too much in that coma.

"Sonic!"

The cobalt hedgehog turned around to see a camera team run up to him. He didn't have time to waste and was about to take off but got an idea. G.U.N used media to manipulate people against his rival. If he could spread the truth through the media then people would understand, it would also be a faster way to get in contact with both commander and the president. Sonic was sure the president would listen to him. But commander was a different question, they weren't really getting along.

Sonic have rejected the invitation of joining their organization more than once, which was before Shadow showed up though. The ebony hedgehog had filled that spot that they so desired. Now they just wanted to get rid of him more or less.

"Hey! I need your help to send a message through Mobius!" Sonic smiled as they got close enough to hear him.

"Sure thing, anything for you Sonic"

Elsewhere a not so happy hedgehog wakes up. Shadow looks down just to see the Chao still lying on his lap. The ultimate life form noticed a sudden change of color. He could have sworn that the Chao was blue before. But now it had turned quite dark almost black during the night. Not only that but it seemed to get a different head shape. The hedgehog wasn't familiar to these animals as he called them. Maybe the apple was bad and made it sick. Shadow put his hand on its forehead to see if it had fever but didn't show any signs of it.

The sudden touch woke up the little Chao and it opens its eyes and looks up. Their eyes met and it suddenly squeals happily and tugs his chest fur.

Shadow groan as his day doesn't really start out to good, not that he expected it to. G.U.N is still chasing him and to his luck he actually got decent amount of sleep.

"Okay little thing" Shadow spoke and hear a snort from the Chao.

"Now would be a great time to change your mind and live a normal life." The Chao shakes its head and cross its arms. Shadow should have expected that sort of reply but he wished it would leave him. Or did he?

"Then you have to follow some rules." Shadow said catching the Chao fully attention. It would do just anything to stay in close to its new owner.

"First! You do whatever I tell you to do. Second don't do annoying noise like that. Third you have to take care of yourself. And to make this clear I am not a parent, so don't act like I am. "Shadow said harshly and could only hear a disagreement noise from the Chao. The hedgehog snorted at it and stood up making the Chao fall off and land on its butt.

A normal Chao would start crying at this point but it already proven to be stubborn and wasn't going to give up.

"One more thing…" Shadow said making the Chao look up with a frown. "If something happens to me you have to stand out of it."

Its blue eyes widened as the hedgehog was referring to possible death. The thought of it put distress on the little Chao. It stood up and hugged Shadows leg trying to cheer up its owner. It wasn't easy for a Chao to communicate with mammals. But Shadow understood this one pretty well, better than the repeating word "chao chao" over and over.

"Let's go." Shadow said making the Chao let go of his leg and walk out along with the hedgehog.

* * *

Commander frowned as the news played out, Sonic alive and awake speaking. The truth was out but people had trouble to believe it. Some thought he had memory loss because of the coma. Sadly the president as well doubted the hero´s words. It was a lot of witnesses to many coincidences that prevented Shadow to sound innocent. But since this was Sonic telling them loud and clear that Shadow was innocent then they had to listen. The president was still accompany the commander, both having trouble of what to do next.

The original plan had been to put Shadow back to the freezing pod and this time permanently or kill him. People were scared of the hedgehog and it was better just to get rid of the problem. This has been brought up more than once in the past. Even if Shadow had behaved well and helped out the citizens. Solving crimes, saving people even cleaning up the mess Sonic make. He would have been considered a hero if it wasn't for what he was and what he has done in the past.

Mistakes like these riled up people making them panic and it could end up in chaos. Believe it or not but the commander himself was actually the reason why Shadow had been allowed to live among them for so long.

After the black arms incident he offered a deal to the hedgehog, to join their organization for security for him and others. This had been the only way for the hybrid to be in peace with Mobius. If Shadow had rejected it he would have most likely been in the freezing pod now.

The president hadn't been too keen with this whole idea but the commander managed to convince him. The commander saw an opportunity to use the hedgehog as he wished. The man didn't care that Shadow saved the world. It was either working for G.U.N or no one.

"Seems like we need to speak with sonic"

* * *

"Oiiiichao" the Chao said making the hedgehog look at it in annoyance. They had been walking for a while or more like sneaking. The Chao didn't enjoy it too much but who could blame it. They had been sneaking for more than an hour now. So the Chao clearly started to get bored and tried to speak with its owner.

"I told you to be quiet…" Shadow hissed making the little Chao frown. The hedgehog regrets taking this animal with him. The only thing it did was slowing him down. Plus he would have to defend it in the end when the soldiers showed up. It could run pretty fast for a Chao but not fast enough. He do recall them being able to fly though but so far haven't showed any signs of that. But then again those tiny wings couldn't just be there for show now could it?

They were getting close to one of the roads out of the city, Shadow was aware that it was being patrolled. But he had to get out from the town and there had to be a way to sneak past. His ebony ears perked as it heard footsteps including mechanical noise. If his memory serves him right it would be a couple of Gun bettles along with the soldiers. Shadow surprised the Chao of suddenly picking it up and dash over to the alley. It wasn't aware of why its owner did that but it liked to be carried. It been walking for so long and it wasn't used to really do that. The ex-agent listens carefully to their steps and held his breath when they got close. But soon enough they passed the alley and Shadow sighed in relief.

The hedgehog didn't notice until now that the Chao was snuggling in his arms. `At least it was quiet…`he thought and deiced against putting it down. This location was more dangerous than those they passed. It would be safer to carry it rather than having it on the ground slow as it was.

As soon as it was clear the hedgehog sneaked out from the alley, they were getting closer and staying close to the buildings was the best option. But it also could trap him if he wasn't careful enough. He heard another swarm of bettles heading their way, he got enough time to hide once more. The Chao was still quiet but did observe its owner. It got amazed of how fast and smooth he could hide like a ninja!

The bettles flew away quickly like as if they were in a hurry. As if they had detected Shadow somewhere else in town. Shadow frowned as he notices the smile from the Chao like it was all a game.

"Well at least someone is having fun.." He muttered and got small smirk from the animal. They finally got to the edge of town and they were still blocking the way. It looked like it was more soldiers this time around. It would be near impossible for them to get past unnoticed. At best get a distraction but Shadow couldn't think of anything that could do that.

His ebony ears perked at the sound of marching heading their way. "What on earth…" he muttered as he could see a line of soldiers' bettles and other destructive machines heading their way.

"They found us….how?.." Shadow growled as he knew what they were trying to do. He looked around and noticed a camera focused on him. He gritted his teeth of his stupidity, of course they would make the roads more secure.

They were cornering him and Shadow knew that it was over. He flinched as a sonic boom was heard. The hedgehog wasn't sure if he should be happy or angry to see his rival suddenly in front of him.

"Where have you been faker..?" Shadow frowned causing the little Chao to hiss to the newcomer. Sonic scratched on the back of his head nervously, he knew Shadow wouldn't be too happy if he found out Sonic was the reason for everything.

"I was in coma..it's a long story sorry I am late." Sonic said not finding this the right time and place to speak more about it. The hero noticed the bad state his rival was in, and all of this because of him. Sonic felt guilty for it as if he had inflicted this on Shadow. But the best he could do now was to help his fellow friend out from the situation and that is what he intend to do.

Shadow blinked as he saw the line of G.U.N soldiers standing still as if they were waiting..waiting for what? Sonic turned around to see what Shadow was looking at and sighed.

"Don't worry about them I already talked to commander. They are not going to harm you trust me. Oh and you need to speak with Commander…." Sonic said giving a weak smile as Shadow death glared the hero.

"So NOW they want to talk! Explain what this is all about! I demand answers!" Shadow growled as sonic expected. The darker hedgehog was anything but happy and he didn't need to see the quills to know that.

"Calm down shads…you will when you talk to him. Its better he tell you than me…" Sonic said honestly, but judging on Shadows behavior it might be tough to even get him willingly to speak with the human.

"I have been hunted down for days! And you are telling me to calm down!" Shadow stomped his foot on the ground, he never showed expression but the whole ordeal was pressing the buttons. The Chao however was trying to calm down its owner by snuggling him. It actually helped to dull the anger for now causing the hedgehog to sigh.

"How do I know you are not lying?" Shadow asked suspicious, he hadn't seen Rouge at all and Omega was reprogrammed to kill him. So who else was it to trust? The hero just showed up now which also came to the question where everyone else was.

"You just have to trust me." Sonic replied not sure how else to respond, he didn't have anything to prove he was right.

"So what's up with all these soldiers?"

"Well commander told me a few minutes ago that you would be here. And he ordered his men to keep you here until I reached to you."

"I see.." Shadow thought over it a bit, it made sense somewhat. But he didn't like the all corner him part that made him feel captured.

"Oh mind if I ask who this baby girl is?"

"Who?" Shadow asked confused of the sudden question.

"The Chao of course." Sonic laughed trying to ease the tense atmosphere. He was aware that the ex-agent wasn't in the mood for jokes but changing subject might calm him down a bit. Shadow had all right to doubt him.

"This thing is a girl? How can you tell?" Shadow asked taking a closer look on the Chao he has been ignoring most of the time. The little Chao was happy to get attention again and smirked satisfied with this "new discovery". That would make her owner stop calling her "thing" at least.

"Wow it's obvious. You see It if you look into its eyes."

Shadow didn't see such thing but then again wasn't aware how "male Chao" looked like. So he had nothing to really compare with.

"I found her in a dump and she kept on following me around after that." Leaving out the promise he made with the tiny Chao. It would sound silly and he was not in the mood for jokes.

"Enough of this." Shadow snorted before the hero could ask more questions about it. Sonic sighed and returned his attention back to the situation. He knew Shadow wouldn't like what would come next, but it had to be done.

"Well shads lets finish this whole… misunderstanding. "


	12. Chapter 12

Their long walk to the building itself had been frustrating as it was. The soldiers and an army of gun bettles stalked after. Near of surrounding them as they strolled to the base. Sonic kept repeating that they were just being cautious like an attempt to calm him down. Shadow worked with these humans before, he felt betrayed more than anything. He couldn't find a reason why he was hunted, because he didn't do anything wrong right? Soon enough they reached to the destination. Shadow glared at the G.U.N facility with boiling anger. He just wanted to blast it down to the ground along with the humans.

Sonic sighed before they entered, last time he was here wasn't to welcoming. So how would the reaction be if Shadow showed up? It was as the hero expected, the humans glared at the hedgehog with hate. Some even put their hands onto their guns ready to pull it out if they saw any signs of rebelling. The ultimate life form tried to shut down the surroundings. Pretend this wasn't happening pretend nothing happened. Sonic observed his rival reaction and the quills were in its normal tense mode. As calm as the ex-agent could even achieve, Sonic had to admit that he was impressed. He thought he would see more emotions to the quills. The hero guessed that the Chao in his arms maybe calmed him down? Sonic smiled as Omega suddenly showed up in the hallway. The hero knew the robot itself was good friend with his rival.

"Greetings" Omega buzzed getting no response from the ebony hedgehog.

"Hey, Omega could you please tell us where commanders is?" Sonic asked polite not sure how to speak to a robot really. He didn't have any chances to speak with metal Sonic before he turned into junk. Not that he didn't try, but the killing machine was more determined to kill him than anything else. Beside he would not get much speech from it like Omega more like buzzing noise. He guessed Eggman had enough with speaking robots considering how he snaps at them.

"It's within my knowledge, follow me." The robot spoke giving little to no attention to the ultimate life form. Sonic got confused of the tension between them, he didn't know what was going on between them. But when his eyes turned back to Shadow he could tell difference. The quills were anything but still as before. It flexed moved high wild to all direction at once, Omegas appearance triggered something. The hedgehog was in absolute fear sadness and anger like never before. Sonic thought his rival was going to chaos blast any minute. It just kept on growing as they approached commander's office.

The hero was getting frustrated, he out of all people just felt sudden urge to hug the hedgehog. Shadow quills were crying out of emotions and the owner didn't allow it to show. This amazed and shocked the hero. Shadow was completely expressionless like usual. This is how everyone saw him this is how he saw him before. How could they all been fooled to believe the ultimate life form was so emotionless. Only allowing himself to show anger at times and cut out everything else. People were so stuck with him being badass cocky rude selfish and angry kind of person.

Shadow turned his attention to Sonic feeling the other eye him up and down like searching for something.

"What do you want faker." He asked casually feeling his emotions going high wire and Sonic was not helping. The hero swallowed hard trying not to get upset because of this. He read Shadows feelings like he was crying out. There was no way Sonic could simply smile at the moment. He didn't have the acting skills to do so. The only thing he wanted to do right now was to help his rival. Why did Omega trigger this? Did something happen between them? Why was Shadow suffering? These questions kept on going.

The ruby eyes were still on Sonic waiting for an answer for his odd behavior. Sonic on the other hand felt speechless. He didn't wake up from his trance until he felt a tear trail down on his cheek. Sonic quickly rubbed his eyes trying to get rid of the evidence of distress for his rival. This didn't went unnoticed, Shadow had never seen Sonic cry or sad for that matter.

"Are you crying faker?" Shadow smirked as if it entertained him but inside got nervous. Was something bad going to happen now? Would he be put back in the freezing pod? Question like these started to spin around making his emotions boil.

Sonic noticed the new added emotion and wanted to slap himself, now he made it just worse unintentionally. He was so amazed how Shadow simply could cut out his true emotions. The hero swallowed hard before he tried to smile. But he knew it wouldn't help especially when it turned out to become a fake smile.

"I just got something in my eye."

"Sure you did." Shadow said still smirking and froze as they were suddenly outside the office. "Reached destination" Omega suddenly spoke making the ultimate life form flinch. The Chao looked up to its owner waiting for something to happen. It didn't take long before Shadow notice the little animal in his arms. He returned his attention to Sonic and frowned before he put down the black Chao.

"Take care of this thing." He spoke harshly making the Chao frown as well. She hated to be called "thing" but Sonic didn't point it out. The hero sighed before he gently picked it up. The Chao was anything but happy it wanted to get out from Sonics arms now at once! Sonic had taken care of Chaos´ before. Not completely new to this kind of behavior. Usually it would occur if the Chao was attached to an owner.

"Stop being so stubborn, remember what I told you." Shadow glared at the Chao who just returned the glare before making an "hmph" sound. Sonic had to admit it was rather cute, the Chao was really reflecting Shadows personality.

"Don't worry we will wait outside." Sonic assured making Shadow snort as response before he entered the office.

"Ah..Shadow I was expecting you." The commander spoke as soon as he laid his eyes on him. The hedgehog growled threatening but only got a smug smirk from the human.

"My soldiers certainly did a good job with you." He spoke referring to Shadows appearance that looked like he was going to collapse any moment. Dried blood covering his fur, fresh wounds that were trying to heal with the little amount of energy it had but kept on reopening.

"Maybe I should reward them for it? It only took them three days to do it after all. "He taunted enjoying the moment.

"Enough of this! Tell me what's going on! I demand answers!" Shadow hissed ready to kill the commander right now. But he knew better, that would make his life worse than it is now. The last thing he wanted was to die or back to the freezing pod again. He had to keep his promise for earth for the people…for Maria. He was going to protect them all even if they went against him. That's what he has always done that's what Maria wished for right?

"Sit down hybrid! And be quiet!" The commander yelled, he downright despise it when Shadow was talking back or in this case demanding answers. The human didn't see the creation have any rights what so ever to question their actions. As the blame would only land on Shadow in the end anyhow.

The hedgehog tightens his fists before he sat down on the chair in front of the desk. His ruby eyes kept on glaring at the human with hatred. The Man ignored this and picked out a paper from the folder that was lying on the table. The ebony ears perked as the commander read through it again double checking it. Shadow saw a visible smirk from the human and knew it was anything but good for his behalf.

"Alright hybrid read through the terms." He ordered before he gave the paper to Shadow. The hedgehog read through and gritted his teeth hard before he clenched the paper. Shadow glared at the human when he was finished. His anger was boiling, he was at the edge of snapping. How he controlled the anger was beyond him.

"You think I am going to sign?" Shadow said emotionless trying to sound as cold as possible.

"It's either signing that or…well we could return the way we been doing these past few days. But I doubt you will last much longer. So we have prepared the freezing pod."

"Does Sonic know these terms?" He had to ask, would the hero accept such fate for him?

"Not all of them, does he need to know?" The commander mused and got a slow shake from the hedgehog. To involve Sonic into this mess would just escalate the situation. Shadow couldn't allow everything to just be swept under a carpet. But he felt helpless, there was nothing he could do.

"A man killed Sandra on your orders!" Shadow hissed furiously not able to keep the anger inside. His ruby eyes flared furiously but got no reaction from the human. The commander always felt superior and never was shaken of Shadows behavior.

"Ah the woman I presume. The situation was critical you see." He started before he stood up looking out from the window.

"What excuse did you have to kill her there is-"

"Silence!" The commander yelled before the hedgehog could continue. The man turned around facing Shadow again with a grim expression.

"We thought you knew your place on earth. Clearly it doesn't appear to be the case."

Shadow gritted his teeth while silently waiting for the commander to speak again. The human soon enough got satisfied with the obedience from the hedgehog and sat down.

"As I said it was critical. We weren't aware you were bonding a friendship with the human. So we had to take action and eliminate her." The ruby eyes widened in realization.

"Why!? Does it matter who I become friends with or not!?" Shadow went silent soon as he noticed the glare from the human. If he kept on snapping the commander he would most likely not answer him anymore.

"How many times do I have to remind you that you're a creation? You were originally made for us, a weapon of destruction. Clearly Gerald made a few mistakes but not impossible to work with. I don't allow you to have a bonding for anyone…why? Remember when Maria died and now this stranger woman."

"Sandra…." Shadow whisper to himself.

"You get revenge sick and attack just anyone for her death. You shouldn't see these terms as a bad thing but more as a solution."

"I am not a robot."

"If you were I wouldn't have to make these terms now would I?" The commander leaned back on his chair relaxing as it went his way. Shadow was in his grasp and there was nothing he could do about it. Unless the hedgehog wished to be a worldwide villain.

"Would have been easier if you were though, reprograming is certainly faster and effective."

Shadow flinched, it reminded him of his team mate Omega who had been reprogramed to kill him without hesitation.

"Like you did with Omega…"

"Oh yes and I should have done it sooner. We had to delete a lot in the memory files though. He kept resisting the order for quite some time. But now he is like a virus cleaned computer."

Shadow clenched his eyes shut trying to ignore the presence of the commander. He wasn't sure how much more he had to take. Deleting Omegas memories is like killing him.

"Where is Rouge.." Shadow whispered loud enough for the human to hear.

"It's rude to not look into the person eyes when you talk." Commander smirked entertained, knowing that he was pushing the right buttons on the poor hedgehog. Shadow opens his eyes and glared into the commanders heterochromia eyes with hate.

"Where is Rouge!?"

"Agent Rouge was originally going to help us to capture you. But she refused no matter how many Chaos emerald we offered. She must have a weak spot for you Shadow the hedgehog." He taunted with a smirk.

"Where is she!?" Shadow growled getting very impatient with the child play the commander was enjoying.

"We didn't have much choice than to put her in a cell of course. Since Sonic made things…complicated we had to make a suggestion for her as well. In fact it was pretty similar to these terms." The man chuckled as the hedgehog was losing it slowly.

"If you sign on you have to forget what happen these past days and join G.U.N forces once more, as goes for Rouge. Second you are not allowed to have any relationship with anyone on this planet. For reason already told besides you are a creation you don't need it anyways. In Rouge case she just has to leave you alone and forget whatever relationship you two had. So to make this work I will split team dark more or less."

"What!?" Shadow hissed not liking where this is going.

"As I said you were bonding with people. Omega been taken care of Rouge is certainly difficult but we manage to work it out in the end." The commander smirked again seeing the hybrid hedgehog shake in anger.

"What did you do to her?!"

"Simple. You didn't know that Omega recorded everything? To put it simple we showed her a not so pleasant video that Omega recorded. In the alley remember? You should remember no?"

Shadow was speechless he knew exactly what he meant. Rouge had seen him attacked by Omega himself. That of course drives the bat to a point of signing on such thing. The commander black mailed her, she did what she thought was the best for Shadow.

"Yes I remember…." Shadow crossed his arms grinding them together to calm down. If Rouge endures so much to a point of signing shouldn't he do the same?

"What about the people in the building? You can't put that on me."

The man shrugged with a smirk before he chuckled amused with the weak attempt to shove him into the dirt.

"Accident happens all the time."

"Of course…." Shadow muttered annoyed, he knew that commander would get away with everything. Yet he had to ask.

"And sonic?"

"What about him?" The man asked surprised of the change of topic. Shadow hadn't been the one to like his rival. His despise was at high degree but yet worked together now and then.

"He is my rival a companion at times, would you be ready to kill him just to have control of me?"

The human started to laugh at the question, every move Shadow did was always easy to counter. The hybrid got confused with the change of mood. He had expected the man to be grumpy about it.

"Shadow shadow… I forgot to tell you why we chased you." He smirked entertained as Shadow perked his ears. He been waiting for an answer of the whole ordeal was about.

"Sonic got a seizure after you left him four days ago. Citizens said you were involved and before we could make a proper analysis Sonic got in coma. Since there were too many witnesses we had no option but to take you down. Not that I mind it you been lately rather…."Commander looked at Shadow for a while observing his reaction but got no other than a cold glare.

"Difficult…..let's just put it this way. Sonic is the whole reason for these couple of days. His friends or your so called companions did nothing to help you. They cared only about their "friend" Sonic only. I am not sure what you expected. But you Shadow…you have no one. So better keep it that way or someone gets hurt."

Shadow knew commander was enjoying this far too much. The human wanted to make him upset rile him up. The hedgehog decided to take control in the situation make the human eat up the words. He took the paper and signed it before he stood up.

"You are right I am the ultimate life form I don't need anyone. I finally got rid of my weak team that slowed me down. Thank you commander for finally acknowledge my superior strength in doing things alone. I also recommend you improving your soldiers aiming skills they never caught me after all. Humans still have a lot to learn. "The hedgehog smirked this time it was commander who boiled in anger. Never did he think that Shadow would sign on so easily he expected a fight. Then downright insult him and the G.U.N organization.

"Seems like I can take my leave now." The rejoined agent said before he stood up with a smug smirk.

"Not so fast!" The commander yelled and stood up in haste. He couldn't allow the hedgehog to get away with that.

"Are you forgetting something?" He asked making the hedgehog confused of the sudden question.

"The Chao, get rid of it I don't care how you do it just do it."

**Author Note: Maybe I rush these chapters but I am in such writing mood. Apoligize for not updating other of my stories. But I would love to hear your thoughts of this chapter :) Oh and its going to involve more sonic after this chapter along with other characters., Stay tuned.^^ **


	13. Chapter 13

**Author note: As usual a late update...but please review your thoughts of it! I would be gladly to hear itC:**

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Shadow wanted to slam the door shut in anger, but he had to control his emotions. That's what he always told himself and yet this was even to overwhelming for the ultimate life form. He gritted his teeth hard together before he allowed his eyes to dart across the hallway. A painful lump in his throat makes itself known as Shadow spot the tiny Chao.

It was no longer in his rival's arms but was running across the floor prideful. She hadn't noticed Shadow and ran straight towards the hero that was expecting her. Sonic was surprised with her performance he had never seen a chao run that fast before.

"Good job." Sonic grinned as the chao stopped in front of him. She crossed her arms and snorted trying to hide her heavy breathing. She had used the remaining energy she had gathered from the apple and didn't want anything else but rest. Chao is a very weak animal in general and need to rest a lot more frequently than mobians.

So it was taking a toll on the tiny chao that yet had no name. Soon enough they both noticed the dark hog that had joined them. The chao didn't hesitate but ran over to Shadow ignoring the paining exhaustion.

The chao embraced his left leg before she rubbed her face against the ebony fur while letting out squeaky noise. In other words, she was happy to see him. Sonic couldn't deny it was the most adorable sight he has ever seen. His emerald eyes payed attention to Shadows quills that only showed "Sadness".

Sonic got confused with the odd emotion, it only grew as Shadow looked down to the chao. His expression however didn't show any signs of distress other than an annoyed frown. The hero approached the other trying to conceal his confusion.

"So how did it go?" Shadow flinched at the question as if he didn't expect it. The quills pointed upwards in furious manners. But you didn't need to be able to read quills to know that he was pissed.

"I signed the paper." Was all he said before Shadow slowly picked up the chao. Sonic could tell it was something off. Especially since the chao was in his arms and allowed her to nuzzle his chest fur. The only thing Shadow responded to it was a gentle pat on her head. Something was clearly wrong.

His eyes spotted the quills move from sadness to anger. Something was up with Shadow and he wanted to know what.

Shadow placed his right hand around the back of her head. He grits his teeth tightly together aware that he was being watched. "Get rid of the chao" Shadow thought but his fingers just couldn't squeeze the life out of her.

He let negative thoughts come to mind in attempt to convince him to murder the defenseless chao. 'Being frozen in a pod would be a better fate than this' Shadow thought even though his current grip was aiming for a kill. The chao hadn't noticed how threatening the hand was around its neck, but someone else did.

Shadow let out a gasp as the chao had been forcibly pulled out from his hands. Sonic had acted on instincts and saved the chao before such horrible outcome could happen. The hero held the chao close to his chest protective ignoring her loud protest in its gibberish language.

Shadow wasn't sure whenever to be grateful or angry for Sonics sudden interaction. All he knew was that he felt ashamed. Sonic had seen through his intentions, even though Shadow wasn't sure he could pull it off. But convince him otherwise was pointless.

People have seen him as a villain long enough might as well appear that way for Sonic too. Shadow crossed his arms and allowed a sadistic smirk display on his muzzle.

"What are you thinking!? Do you want to ki-" Sonic stopped knowing that the chao would understand. He didn't wish the poor chao to know what Shadow was going to do.

"I don't care what happens to her." Shadow lied and felt that he was running out of endurance and soon couldn't remain this façade anymore. But one thing for sure, Shadow wasn't able to kill the chao.

Sonic glared at the hedgehog paying close attention to the quills that formed to deep sadness. Not the sort of emotion you would spot for someone that didn't care. But pointing it out would reveal his new tactic to understand the other.

But then again, Shadow had tried to kill her. Was he so mad at this whole ordeal that he would kill an innocent chao to let out the steam?

"What happened in there?" Sonic asked but only heard a small chuckle from his rival.

"You are overthinking faker nothing happened. But if you care about that thing then why don't you keep it." Shadow said and turned around to leave. He knew if the chao remained in the hands of the hero it would be safe.

Plus commander didn't directly ask him to 'kill it' so to speak. So Shadow technically got rid of it, the chao would no longer be under his protection. Shadow would not take care of her anymore he was free from that burden. But why did he suddenly feel like he lost something?

"Wait! Shadow." Sonic growled he had to know what was going on. Shadow always shut everyone out when things was getting rough. But he was done being thrown aside and ignorant wasn't on the map. The chao cried out for her owner desperately and hammered Sonics arms to get free.

That didn't do the slightest but the thought of separating her from Shadow did. The ebony ears pointed backwards and if it wasn't for the low fuel of chaos energy he would have left now. He was tired of running, mere walking was taking a toll of him.

There were reopened wounds on his body blood trailing down the now dull fur. The green blood was painted across most parts of his body. Sonic felt guilty for the state but he didn't want Shadow to leave the chao that was proving to help him.

It may be a little creature but Sonic had never seen a living being able to comfort the agent. His plan was to support his rival yet felt powerless to do so. The chao could be the key to recover the broken hedgehog he saw in front of him.

'Come on we both know you don't care about him.' Sonic flinched as a familiar voice echo in his mind. The hero quickly looked around but didn't see anyone. Was this his thoughts? Sonic didn't notice that the chao had managed to get out from his arms and ran over to the other hedgehog.

Sonic completely ignored the surroundings all together, he could only tremble as he felt his mind being intruded by something awful familiar.

'That freak is just a waste of time. We are stronger than him you know it.' The voice laughed and Sonic finally could put the pieces together.

'Fleetway?' Sonic gritted his teeth, the super fueled hedgehog was still there! Or was he just losing his mind? Did the coma cause a brain injury that made his mental state delusional?

'Bingo!' Sonic felt his heart skip a beat as the voice replied in his mind. How did this happen!?

'I thought you would never release me from our prison. You even let dark Sonic out from the cage before me now that's insulting!' Fleetway muttered displeased by remembering the past experience. A sudden bang sound averted Sonics attention from the voice in his mind.

The Chao was laying on the ground beside the wall as if it had thrown straight in to it. She was knocked out unconscious but still alive. The emerald eyes glared at the reason for it and met the ruby orbs that tried to hide emotion of regret.

'Well would you look at that, big bad hog think he is strong by kicking that pathetic thing. Oh right you care about weak stuff, save them right? Well you did a great job there hero, so are you going to let him go?' Fleetway snickers in the background while Sonic try to progress what caused his rival to snap.

Shadow tried to keep the façade alive, kicking the chao would certainly give the message. It hurt her but save her at the same time. He don't have afford to lose the chao aswell, this was the best option. She would stop looking for him now, he was sure of that.

But he also wanted Sonic to stay the hell away from him, remain as rivals sure. But not as buddies or anything G.U.N would take action for. Sonic looked horrified as the silence seemed to last for hours. That soon replaced an expression of anger, before the agent could make a move he was suddenly punched in the gut.

He heard gasps of several of humans when he hit the wall but none of them wished to interact. In fact they gathered around at safe distance to see what was up. The injured hedgehog coughed loudly trying to regain his breathe. Shadow didn't expect the hero to do anything other than yell before running off with the chao.

Now he will have to suck up the humiliation in front of all the humans. Shadow leaned back to the wall that had gotten a hard blow. He almost went through the wall and the damage would certainly be brought up by the commander soon enough.

Sonic frowned as a few of the humans laughed entertained. Oh they had waited so long to see the proud agent beaten to the ground. The punch wasn't merciful, a few broken ribs at least. Shadow was too weak already, having a brawl with his rival was a losing battle.

"Leave us!" Sonic yelled darting his eyes to the humans that had gathered around. They quickly complied but that didn't change his mood. Sonic hated violence but he couldn't turn a blind eye to what Shadow just did.

Shadow rubbed his throat slowly glaring at the other trying to foresee what he was planning. He had never seen the hero so mad but he tried to stay strong even though Shadow felt like collapsing. The agent wasn't to surprise that the commander didn't show up. He probably is leaning back in the office watching them through the cameras, just to be safe.

"Why did you kick her!?" Sonic broke the silence and clenched his fists. Shadow smirked with overconfidence as if he had the upper hand.

"Because she is a pest." The answer made the hero flinch and tried to ignore the laughing voice in his mind.

'See he hurt weak shit because he is a weaker shit! Come on Sonic show him who's the boss!' Sonic grin in agreement before he charged. Shadow didn't have time to react before the impact got him allowing sonic to pin him to the wall.

His head got a pretty hard hit causing his vision to blur at first before he was aware of the situation. Shadow tried to use his remaining strength to kick him off but only to realize how extremely weak he was.

The hero was unaffected by the kicks that aimed his legs and body. Not that it surprised him to much but the position was completely new for the agent. Nobody had overpowered him like this.

'Damn lack of energy!' Shadow mentally cursed as Sonics smug grin widened. Sonic had a tight grip on his wrists and he could feel his breathe touch his muzzle. The agent stopped struggling as Sonics scent strike his senses. The pleasant smell calmed him down but not relax him, but it made him more aware how close the other was.

"What the hell do you want faker?!" Shadow growled and got a better view of his rival. The agent blinked confused, did his eyes just flicker a bit red?

'Sonic you should tear his guts out! Yes yes..YES! AAAaaand let me taste his so called Ultimate blood! It looks yummy!' Sonic growled as the voice was getting to him, it was like he was losing control of himself. Where did this anger come from!? What did fleetway do to him!?

"No." Sonic thought out loud completely ignoring the hedgehog he was pinning down. Fleetway hissed furiously as he protested. Sonic could hear his claws hit something solid. Was this all in his mind? It was like the psycho hedgehog was trapped in his mind that tried to get out!

Shadow on the other hand didn't understand what was going on with his rival but he tried to stay unaffected by it. Shadow wasn't stupid he knew it wasn't only about the chao but also something else.

'Come on…' Fleetway growled but only met Sonics silence as he fought back.

'FINE! Don't tear his guts out…But I want to taste that blood! I have never seen green juicy blood before…Let me..taste it..Just a little bit, it won't hurt him.' Fleetway assured trying to calm down the rebellious owner of the body.

Shadow wasn't ready as Sonic suddenly knee him in the gut. The agent was freed but was more focused to regain his breathe than attack. Sonic growled loudly before he wrapped his right hand around the ebony throat.

He was squeezing it tightly, enough to keep the hedgehog on the edge and defenseless. Fleetway laughed through Sonics mind as he complied so far. He wasn't going to kill the 'Ultimate life form'…yet it was far too enjoyable with a challenge.

He knew a bit of Shadow after looking through Sonics memory as soon as got free. Here he had expected an exciting fight from Shadow but alas was disappointed to the highest degree. But Fleetway wasn't going to let this loss be forgotten, no he wanted Shadow to remember who is superior.

The ruby eyes glared at him in panic as Sonic suddenly grabbed his right ear and pulled his head upwards. Shadows hands try to free his throat but couldn't remove them. Sonic chuckled completely clouded with Fleetways desire. The agent was losing conscious and his hands fell down to his sides.

Sonic leaned down to the ebony neck that was finally exposed without a struggle.

'Bite him.' Shadow flinched as fangs bit down his neck digging down the flesh. He couldn't utter a word but only feel the agony spreading down the neck. Fleetway was surprised that the blood was filled with so much chaos energy.

It was downright delicious he felt his own power get stronger. He digs the fangs deeper to get more out of him. Damn the super fueled hedgehog had never carved for anything else than Sonic but the power was addicting. This was exactly what he needed!

Sonic loosens his grip of the throat allowing the injured hedgehog to breathe. Shadow quickly inhaled the oxygen and coughed with clenched eyes. The poor hedgehog couldn't think straight all he knew was that he was very weak!

Sonic licked the wound before he fully let go of the other causing him to slide down to the floor panting. Fleetway glee eagerly as things is going his way, however it was not only Fleetway who got stronger.

The super hedgehog yelp as his mind was suddenly thrown back to the corner by its original owner. Fleetway had completely forgotten the slim grip he had on Sonic, but instead of being concern about it he just laughed. It was not the end of it he was sure of that.

Sonic gasped as he felt the taste of blood in his mouth. He tried to spit it out and rub his muzzle to remove the blood from it. But all he wanted to do is puke. Fleetway had taken control and hurt Shadow! What have he done!?

The agent groaned painfully as he sat up with still shut eyes. Sonic paled as he realized he had bit the neck rather badly. First thought was to get him to a hospital but nobody would take him in he was sure of that.

Sonic turned around and dashed over to the chao that was knocked out and picked it up. He returned to Shadows side and went down to his knees in front of him. Sonic didn't forgive him for what he did to the chao…But he couldn't forgive himself either.

"Don't worry Shadow I got you." The agent flinched as his hand touched his shoulder. Shadow wanted to throw it off but ignored it for now. Sonic heard the other laugh in his mind and mentally growled.

'Aw come on Sonic. We both know you like to overpower him. Well the thought that is, you have never actually done it before an-'

'Shut up!' Sonic interrupted but only got an entertained hum from the psycho hedgehog. Sonic didn't wish to have any conversation with the mad hedgehog in his mind. He had thought it was all a dream but that was a wishful thinking.

Shadow opens his eyes slowly and could sense his energy course through his rival. He had stolen his chaos energy! What in the world is going on!?


	14. Chapter 14

Shadow knew Sonic had his reasons to attack him but in such viciously way? On top of it all steal his chaos energy. How could he even do that to begin with!? Nobody other than Knuckles could possibly be capable of that. The hero wasn't known to manipulate chaos energy, although he was able to use it somewhat. But not near enough to steal it!

The ruby eyes glared at the hero with ill intent, first thing that came to mind was to beat the hell out of him. But reason said otherwise, he needed the annoying hedgehog alive to keep the chao safe. Shadow growled as Sonic didn't remove the hand on his shoulder and had to personally slap it away.

Sonic hissed in pain and brought back the hand to get a better hold of the chao instead. The hero felt very troubled, it wasn't in his nature to lash out like that! Also attack the almost defenseless hedgehog in front of him, even though Shadow deserved it.

But Sonic did the most unthinkable! Instead of throwing punches like he usually would he followed the voice and bites him! Drawing out blood from his rival because of the mere taste of it! It didn't even have the iron taste, in fact it had some weird twist of chaos energy with sugar tint.

That might sound tasty but it only made him feel sick in the stomach. Sonic brought up his hand to rub off the remaining green blood from his muzzle with little success. He wasn't sure what to say, apologize? Explain what and why it happened? Or let the silence remain?

Shadow used his left hand to pressure the new wound waiting for something to happen. All he saw was an expression of full confusion just like himself. It made him growl in spite, how dare faker act like he didn't do it.

One thing for sure Shadow was sick and tired of these fake sympathized creatures! Say one thing but do another, and Sonic was clearly one of those. Shadow can't trust anyone, so commander was right after all. He was all alone.

Whatever reason Sonic had to lash out at him didn't interest him anymore, simple as that! Where he got the power to manipulate chaos energy was something he shouldn't be surprised about.

Sonic tried to explain in the past that he was thrown into a couple of fantasy lands. Starting with being king of Camelot with a knight called Lancelot with the exact appearance as him. At that point he stopped listening.

So perhaps stealing energy was nothing compared to that. Although everything the hero claimed to be capable of and experienced sounded like nothing but nonsense. It was almost like Sonic needed an excuse to speak with him without normal occasions.

"Shadow." Sonic broke the silence with a new expression of guilt. Shadow growled before he supported himself to the wall to get up on his feet. The ultimate life form was determined to leave. The will was thankfully stronger this time, Shadow didn't want to show any further weakness in front of his rival.

Sonic could only watch the other struggle to get up on his feet. The energy he felt inside was so strong which meant it left his rival weak. The hero tried to call out to this so called "Fleetway" but got no response. Sonic didn't even feel his awareness, it was like nothing happened! That couldn't be right!

Shadow was lightly panting after the effort and wished nothing else than to attack the other. But he had to heal first! The bleeding from the neck had calmed down. He removed his hand knowing it had recovered enough to conceal the wound on its own. But too much movement would reopen it. He clenched his free hand now feeling the blood sink into his palm further.

"Move aside." Shadow said causing Sonic to look pained. The agent grit his teeth together as the hero didn't comply. What was wrong with him!? Couldn't faker take a hint? He had enough with everything and wanted to be left alone!

"I can't leave you like this." Shadow frowned with Sonic's reason that yet again was pointless. The heroic nature of his will be the death of him. Especially if he starts pity Shadow that currently didn't tolerate it, if ever. Shadow cast a death glare causing Sonic to flinch. The hero gulps before he clear his throat.

"You are hurt and I…I-"

"Spare me the details faker, I leave whenever you like it or not." There was no more discussion about it. Shadow lightly pushed him aside expecting Sonic to protest but got none of it. All Shadow could do now was to use his power to keep the only promise worth living for.

"_Shadow... I beg of you... give them a chance to be happy._"

The hedgehog grits his teeth together as he recalls the last words from Maria. 'Calm down Shadow this is what she wished for.' He thought to himself as he received smirks from the humans. All he had to do is endure it, even if it last for an eternity. The agent walked down the hallway completely distracted with keeping his posture and was only brought to reality as he walk straight into someone.

He froze as the deadly robot once his friend was standing in his way. Shadows ruby eyes travel across the almost indestructible machine to trace any hint of his old friend. Omegas red orbs have never appeared so intimidating before, it sent terror through his body.

All he saw was a dangerous robot that outclassed Eggmans newest creations that held no mercy to the living. Omega was gone…dead murdered!

"Project Shadow your lack of focus needs to upgrade. Or perhaps that's a meatbag function." The robot pointed out without any jokes behind it. The ebony ears pointed backwards as the humans nearly burst out in laughter. How dare he call him a project!?

Shadow growled as his anger focused on the machine in front of him. Omega was no longer a friend just a mindless robot.

"Don't address me as anything else than Shadow!"

"I fail to comprehend what you are asking for. Are you not the ultimate life form?"

"I am Shadow the hedgehog also known as the ultimate life form! It's you that need an upgrade!"

"Search files of Shadow the hedgehog." He buzzed making the hedgehog very uncomfortable but he tried to remain unfazed of the situation. Shadow did though send death glares at the other human that was on the brick of laughing. It made them freeze but the smug smirks didn't fade.

"Project Shadow is no hedgehog." Shadow felt his heart stop, he didn't expect the robot to actually share the information. Even though it was common knowledge didn't mean anyone dared to bring it up. He wished to silence his old friend meaning tearing out that voice chip but had no energy to do so.

"Project Shadow is an anthropomorphic hedgehog alien hybrid." Shadow paled and could only stare at the robot with wide eyes as the real humiliation was just getting started.

"Created and owned by Gerald robotnik, intentions to cure Maria robotnik that failed."

"Don't yo-"

"Project Shadow was put in custody after declared as a threat to the community. Currently status: tamed. Owner: G.U.N."

"Shut up!" Shadow roared before the humans could burst into laughter. He couldn't stand being humiliated by the one person he once called friend. Shadow clenched his fists furiously almost digging through the skin.

"I presume your outburst confirm my information to be correct. Don't waste time to claim otherwise Project Shadow." The hedgehog was loss of words and felt his muzzle flush. He was completely ashamed of his background and he didn't need a reminder of it!

"I don't need to prove you anything." Shadow said trying to wear his overconfident expression.

"Correct, I already know everything." Omega countered making Shadow growl loudly and if it wasn't for the low energy he now possessed he would have destroyed Omega. He was about to walk past the robot but was stopped by its claws that lightly grabbed his head.

One would have thought that the robot patted him as one claw gently brushed through the ebony fur. It caught Shadow off guard, he didn't expect Omega to touch him in such awkward way. The Omega he knew had respect for personal space.

It sent a threatened shiver down his spine that went unnoticed by the others. The robot had a strong grip on him and attempt to pull away would be impossible, Shadow was too exhausted and it would only make him appear as a weakling if he tried. So instead he turned his ruby orbs to glare at the robot that was unfazed by it.

"What do you want?" Shadow growled while he crossed his arms waiting for the robot to explain himself.

"I have a mission to complete." Omega buzzed as his other hand showed a device that looked like a bracelet. Shadow made a grimace as he was sure the other wanted him to wear it. It was almost like a wristwatch, expect that there was no watch but instead had a big mark of G.U.N on it.

"What is that?"

"This is ultimate bracelet UB-100, it contains a tracker with communication capabilities. It recognizes your DNA as its rightful wearer." Omega turned it around to show the backside that seemed to have tiny needles on it.

"And why would I wear that?" Shadow rubbed his wrist already sure why commander asked for it. But he just had to leave that part out.

"G.U.N doesn't wish to take any chances as Project Shadow has in the past disobeyed their orders. G.U.N wants supervision even though you are tamed."

"I am not an animal!" Shadow growl once more but didn't get any reaction from the robot, only snickers from the humans.

"I fail to understand why we are back to our old subject." That did it, he couldn't stand this new personality of Omega was absolutely degrading. He snatches the device and without hesitation before he put it on his right wrist near the Inhibitor ring.

His fur stood up as the device tightly shut around his wrist digging its needles into the flesh. It was attached without any simple possibilities to take it off. Shadow grits his teeth as he tried to ignore the stinging pain that would remain there until he earned their trust again, if he ever.

Shadow gave the other a hateful glare searching for any satisfaction coming from robot so he could let him go already.

"You done?" Shadow grits his teeth together before he flinch as Omega send out his laser scan over his body. A low buzzing noise escapes the robot as it scans the hedgehog head to toe a few times before Omega removes his hand.

"Mission complete, the headquarters will contact you when you are repaired." Omega said suddenly completely uninterested in the hybrid anymore. Shadow clenched his fists as the robot left him. There was no friendly conversation, not even playful taunts.

He sent another death glare to the humans causing them to finally leave. 'At last peace and quiet.' The hedgehog looked down to his wrist and rubbed his thumb across the G.U.N mark. 'They might as well put a collar on me.' Shadow frowned before he made his escape from the building. Not knowing a certain hedgehog saw the whole thing.

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**Author note: I might go a bit to slowly with the story? Trying to build it up in reasonable pace but I wanna hear your thoughts about it! I also added a summary to the story finally! Anyways I hope you guys liked this chapter and pls review C:**


	15. Chapter 15

**Author Note: Very early update! Thank you all guys for reviews by the way C: i really appreciate it^^ I hope i didnt rush this one I just got in the mood for writing. Enjoy!**

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"Tails!" Sonic charged in to the mansion large house in a blast avoiding the obstacles in the way. He had only been unconscious for a few days and the house was already a mess. He breaks a halt when the speedsters encounter the echidna. Knuckles weren't surprised to see the hero in fact he looked more like he spent time waiting for him.

"Where is Tails?" Sonic asked in a hurry while the other just crossed his arms.

"Sleeping." Was the simple answer, although that just confused the hedgehog. It was still clear daylight and the kitsune even offered to rescue Shadow. Not only him but Knuckles along with Amy volunteered as well.

"What are you doing here?" Sonic frowned feeling a bit betrayed knowing he was the only one searching for his rival before. Unless Amy was still out there, but she was more likely hunting him down rather than Shadow. Plus the news must have gotten to her at this point anyways. So he can expect the fangirl to make an appearance soon.

"What does it look like I am doing? I am making sure that someone who can barely walk straight, doesn't pilot a plane. "Knuckles muttered displeased of the lack of gratitude. Sonics blue ears perked at the heavy breathing coming from the closed door on the left.

Of course! When Sonic first saw his little brother he appeared to be on the edge of falling asleep. The fox had been awake during Sonic's few days of coma, which meant Tails had a lot of sleep to catch up. Sonic sighed before he gave a genuine smile.

"Thanks."

"What's so urgent anyways?" The guardian asked for obvious reasons. Sonic looked worked up like time was running out. His violet eyes trailed down to the chao in his arms that was silent, sleeping? It had a very dark unusual color developing a few spikes on the back of its head. Not only that, but the forehead was swollen like the chao had taken a rather ugly hit.

"And whose chao is that?" He added catching the hero off guard. Sonic had completely forgotten the chao.

"Shadow's" Knuckles nodded as the confusion of its abnormal color was explained. The chao must admire him a lot to change its appearance that early, usually it would take years! But the echidna shrugged it off like nothing.

"To answer your first question I just needed help to take care of her." 'Nice save Sonic' he mentally sighed in relief.

"I see, well I am not doctor but you should probably cool it down." Knuckles tapped a finger on his arm not completely buying the answer. Sonic nodded and rushed over to the kitchen to get some ice. The echidna followed pretty sure an explosion was required to wake up the young fox. Sonics yelling sort of proved that theory.

The hedgehog was standing at the cooler trying to open it while carrying the chao which proved to be a difficult task for the hero. Knuckles rolled his eyes, even if it was rather entertaining he might end up dropping the poor chao.

"Let me take her." Knuckles offered and flinched as the chao was suddenly in his arms. That speed Sonic possessed was hard to keep up sometimes. Sonic pulled out frozen food that should have been used long ago before he found what he was searching for.

"Where is Shadow? It's his chao shouldn't he take care of it?" Sonic stopped what he was doing thinking back to the incident. Sonic was glad he found a toilet quickly to remove signs of alien blood. But he still had the taste left in his mouth as evidence that it even occurred.

Should he tell Knuckles what happened? Sonic grits his teeth before he mentally shook his head.

"Shadow left it behind." Sonic answered before returning to the task and put the ice he found in a plastic bag. He rolled it tightly shut and scooped the chao back in his arm.

"What a jerk." Knuckles growled and took a seat at the kitchen table. The hero just sighed but couldn't defend his rival in this one. It was cruel not only by leaving it but to hurt it too. Sonic placed the ice on its forehead and heard a small content sigh from the chao.

"I know a chao garden nearby if you-"

"NO!" Sonic interrupted with a growl making Knuckles flinch surprised, he refocused his violet eyes on the hero in confusion. The anger flowing out from the hero was indescribable it almost made him shiver, almost. The hedgehog even glared at him threatening. There was a long silence before Sonic blinked confused as the anger faded, what just happened?

"I am sorry." Sonic apologized, Knuckles sighed and put up his palm in the air trying to assure the hedgehog it was fine.

"Don't worry about it, I guess you are keeping her here then?" Sonic nodded quickly and kept his eyes on the unconscious chao, afraid that he would lash out otherwise if their eyes met.

Was Fleetway the reason for his emotional problem? The frustration anger despair just drowns him suddenly then fades to nothing. Should he tell Knuckles maybe he have the answer? No he would just blame it on the whole coma incident.

Sonic sat down beside the echidna and soon removed the ice when the swelling looked less bad. He couldn't help but feel some sort of connection with his rival because of the chao. She started to resemble him and he hoped that the chao didn't get traumatized because of this. Only time could tell.

So all he could do now was to wait for his little brother to wake up, and pray that Amy hasn't showed up before that.

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Shadow was exhausted both mentally and physically, there was no more tears to shed. He already knew the murderer of Sandra would go on free foot no matter how much proof he had. The hedgehog growled to himself as he kicked a rock.

The birds were chirping as he walks through the forest to calm down. The fresh air and soft ground under his hover shoes didn't do the slightest. Instead it made him think more about his current situation of how limited he was…

He removed the branches in the way as he made his way deeper inside the forest. The hedgehog didn't know where he was but it didn't matter. At some point he would have to return to reality…he wish Maria was here.

The ebony ears perked at the sound of flowing water nearby and followed the noise. It was a small stream surrounded by moss and several rocks almost preventing its flow but failed miserable as it trailed down the forest. There were thick trees around the area, this was clearly a perfect place for them to grow allowing limited light to break through.

It caught his attention completely and decided to sit down to rest for a while. Other than the birds and the stream it was rather quiet. He closed his eyelids and lowered the ears softly just relaxing. Shadow needed to gather the lost energy and what place couldn't be better than a calm environment? It wasn't like he had a chaos emerald around, in fact those were still in G.U.N possession.

The hedgehog frowned as G.U.N returned to his thoughts once more. The stinging pain made itself known from his wrist and tried the hardest to ignore it. Damn it! It was like the whole world was testing him. Who could break the ultimate life form first!?

His gloved hand rubbed the forehead trying to clear the thoughts with little success.

"Damn it!" His eyes snapped open and grabbed the closest rock to throw in the stream. It sent the water off its course and a few drops hit his muzzle. The hedgehog growled as he rubbed it off and glared at the water. What he wouldn't do to murder the commander! Have his blood on his hands, killing him in the most gruesome way he could think of.

He shakes his head in disbelief, when did his thought becomes so dark? No he didn't want another life on his hands. This is not what Maria wanted! Shadow flinched as the Gunwatch suddenly started to make noise.

Not a progressing noise more like the one you would expect from something malfunction. The stinging feeling grew and it was getting hot almost burning his wrist. The hedgehog yelped as it zapped through his arm suddenly. He jumped up to his feet almost falling backwards and tried to pull it off.

A humming sound soon emerged through the forest removing his attention from the bracelet even though it still burned. Shadow frowned upon seeing the eggmobile levitating in front of him. The madman hasn't changed the slightest. The human smirked and rubbed his mustache as if he knew something Shadow didn't.

"I apologize for the pain Shadow, but I would rather not have G.U.N on my heels." Shadow crossed his arms giving the man a suspicious glare. The doctor don't just show up to greet him without a reason especially when it was by choice, he wanted something.

"So you cracked the bracelet huh." Shadow couldn't help but smirk, although it wouldn't take long before G.U.N found out.

"More like hacked. You see if I simply removed its function it would alert the organization, we can't have that." The man put his hands together taking his time to explain himself. This is what he despised with the human. Dragging it out with riddles that Shadow would eventually solve, it just a waste of time.

"What do you want?" Shadow eyed the man that leaned back comfortable in his seat.

"I want you to bring me the chaos emeralds." The hedgehog snorted with the obvious reason. G.U.N still had them hidden somewhere in the base. Of course he would go straight to ask him for it. Wait..why ask him to do it?

"Why do you think I would betray the organization just to give you the emeralds?" Shadow forced out even though he personally wished to tear it apart.

"I can be very convincing." The hedgehog tried hard not to roll his eyes and only let out a small huff. The man clearly had something up his sleeve.

"Then speak."

"Still forward as usual Shadow." The doctor chuckled causing the hedgehog to growl impatient.

"Alright alright..First thing first, the whole incident in station square caught my eye and I decided to hack into G.U.N. pathetic technology. They have a lot of dark business actually they are anything but "Guardians" they claim to be." The human mused getting off track, another growl brought him back and the man cleared his throat.

"As I went through the files something particular happened." The ebony ears perked in curiosity, something G.U.N was keeping from him?

"It appeared that I opened a path for a specific piece of particle to get inside my system. It could have been considered a virus because of the commotion it caused! But a person with a high intelligence such as me wouldn't confuse it with something so pitiful. "

"Then what was it?" Shadow groaned as he was taking his time.

"Omega." The ruby eyes got wide in shock. How is it possible?!

"Those primitive fools thought they could simply delete a high advanced AI. It requires a lot more than that to eliminate it."

"Where is he!?" Shadow asked getting desperate to see his old friend again no matter what shape he was in. The doctor pushed a button and a brown colored robot appeared. It was a size of a hand and had a cream shaped appearance. It didn't possess anything else other than two pair of red eyes.

"This is the only body he currently has access to. While the core conscious remain in my data base." The human said and without hesitation threw it over to the hedgehog who easily caught it. His ruby eyes traveled across the weird shaped cream metal and focused on its glowing eyes.

"Is it really you Omega?"

"You thought they could get rid of me that easily?!" A childish voice shouted taking Shadow off guard. The hedgehog tried the hardest not to laugh, the once killing machine lowered to this level. Shadow would never let him live this one down.

"Doctor why did you give Omega an appearance of shit and a voice chip of a kid?" If a robot could blush then Omega would have turned red and shut down due to overheat.

"He messed up my data base like his own personal playground! It took me days to repair! It serves him right!" Shadow hid his face under his palm trying his hardest not to laugh.

"Don't you dare Shadow!" The robot yelled with its high pitch voice. That did it, Shadow burst out in laughter shocking the doctor. It almost seemed like Shadows problems just disappeared along with it. His friend wasn't dead he was right here, in a poop shaped robot sure but still alive.

"Just wait until Rouge sees you." Shadow said forcing his laughter to stop, which put a very painful ache on his chest. Completely forgetting the contract he signed on. The human cleared his throat getting their attention again.

"Fun reunion, but I am here for business. I want those emeralds and you Shadow will get them for me. Or Omega will never have a proper body again." The hedgehog smirked amused and looked down to the cream shaped robot.

"Actually I think this body suit him just fine."

"SHADOW!" The robot screamed almost tearing his eardrums.

"Fine, I will get the emeralds but I can't say I am currently suitable for the task. Plus G.U.N will find out sooner or later even if I manage to get them undetected. I have already been-"

"Don't worry about that I have everything covered. People don't call me genius for nothing!" Eggman interrupted making Shadow frown. The human didn't have foolproof plans but then again that was against Sonic, but G.U.N was a different question.

"Fine I am listening." Shadow smirked.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author Note: Thanks so much for the reviews guys!:D I hope this chapter bring just as much joy as the previous one. Enjoy!**

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"I am aware that G.U.N is full of imbeciles but this plan is without doubt stupid." Shadow muttered while he followed the human towards his hidden lair. The hedgehog held the robot cupped in his hands while the human remained in his eggmobile letting out a snort.

"Bah! I am not done yet! I have left out the best part." He insisted which probably wouldn't change Shadows opinion, or that's what he thought. Omega on the other hand preferred to be silent for obvious reasons. He hated his new body adding with the most humiliating voice chip yet to be known. Although this shitty situation made him realize just how much he missed his team.

"I hope you are right doctor." The hedgehog frowned while taking notice of a large building up ahead. Shadow let his eyelids fall halfway as he gave Eggman an unimpressed glance. A hidden lair that was the size of a mountain added with his common brand of himself, very stealthy…

"Home sweet home." The human said before the gate flipped smoothly aside for them to enter. A few robots greeted them that appeared to look like ladybugs on wheels. They buzzed alert as they saw the hedgehog and revealed their tiny guns threatening.

"Don't worry my children, Shadow is our guest so I expect you to treat him as such." Eggman said that instantly calmed them down and lowered their guns. Shadow had never seen that model before but it was downright pathetic.

"Are these your guard dogs'? If so I am clearly losing faith in your current capabilities Doctor. "

"Don't be ridiculous! These are just my first finest creations, I keep them as a reminder of my very first step to world domination! Whahaha!" Eggman stretched out his arms in a victory stance ignoring the sigh from the hedgehog. He realized the awkward silence and cleared his throat before he posture himself.

"This is the main security." The human said smugly and pressed a circular button on his eggmobile. Laser beams appeared on each side of the hallway making sure nothing could pass through. The linear luminaire sinks down and the gaping hole quickly reveals rotator guns. They instantly turn its attention to the duo ready to fire on command.

The hedgehog resisted a yawn as the human rabbled on about how one of each functioned. Neither did he care nor would it do its job to begin with. Shadow could easily break through the defenses if he so wished.

"Enough! I don't want to remain in this body any further! Let's get this done and over with!" Omega yelled sounding nothing else than a kid crying out for candy. If Shadow wasn't aware the robot was his companion he would have thrown it across the hallway and let the laser shred it to pieces. The voice chip was fun at start but now it was getting annoying.

"Fine." The man grumbled as he deactivated the security system with a sulking frown. Eggman got out from his eggmobile allowing his feet to carry his weight for a change. He led the way through several hallways that had its own category purpose. But instead of sharing further information of the case he let it pass. The two so called team dark members weren't in the mood for a guide tour.

But couldn't a man with his intelligence shine for a while? The human observed the hedgehog behind his glasses, hoping for a sign of awestruck but all Shadow showed was lack of interest. Eggman muttered something about "Primitive rodents" under his breath that thankfully went unnoticed for his own sake.

"Why do I get the impression we are walking in circles?" Shadow glared at the human losing the thin patience he had left. Everything looked the god damn same. An endless hallway turning left to right with rooms on each side of them that apparently wasn't the location they were looking for. But what made it all worse were the white walls that could almost blind someone. The floor was solid grey as metal and was clean enough to reflect your appearance. Yes Shadow was sick and tired of it.

"Funny you came to ask. " Eggman replied and turned to his left finally entering a large room that could almost rival a size of a factory. It was filled with bunch of enlarged machines of all kinds. Most of them resembled animals or bugs. What caught the hedgehogs' interest were the big guns! One specific reminded him of Omegas original body.

It was clearly upgraded, but adopted a new smoother appearance. Its size was much smaller similar to the gamma version. There were no pointy edges other than the classic claws making it unable to appear intimidating. It didn't send terror down the spine which was a huge let down.

"Are you growing soft Eggman?" Shadow smirked as the human turned around to see what he was referring to. The man huffed as his newest creation got insulted, but an idea struck him with a grin.

"Not as soft as my grandfather." The ultimate life form flinched surprised as his creator was brought up. It took a few seconds before he puzzled it together and gritted his teeth. The cream shaped robot didn't pass the opportunity and burst out laughing almost breaking the voice chip in the progress.

"Shut up Omega!" Shadow glared down on the tiny robot that responded by increasing the volume instead. The hedgehog growled and was tempted to throw him across the room. Shadow looked up to the human that still exposed the grin making sure to rub it in.

"Alright enough! Just get to the point doctor!" Shadow's quills pointed upwards furiously almost diverting his eyes from the man. It was embarrassing to say the least. Omega stopped laughing leaving the hedgehog at peace but would have smirked if he could.

"I take it as you are impressed with my newest creation Beta-06."The hedgehog crossed his arms in disapproval letting out an "hmph".

"What about me sir?" A red robot asked that appeared behind the beta, it was slightly larger than Omega owning a round head composed of a semispherical cap. Eggman frowned upon seeing his assistant Orbot that constantly pointed out the wrongs instead of sharing any bright ideas. Its grey-framed pupil-less eyes almost seemed plead for recognition from his creator.

"You are just a piece of junk that I haven't cared to melt apart. Which reminds me where have you been?!"

"I gathered the seven prototypes as you asked." Orbot scratched the top of his head trying to locate any errors of the task he fulfilled.

"Ah right yes...of course!" The human mused as he failed to remember it. Shadow perked his ears as he felt a weak sign of chaos energy in the air. He charged towards the energy instead of waiting for the man to recover from his absorbed thoughts.

Shadow frowned as he saw the seven chaos emeralds on top of a bunch of blueprints at the worktable. They were all clearly fake but owned the same bright color as the real ones.

"So this is your grand plan?" Shadow asked unimpressed as the human got beside him.

"These are just the simple replacement for the real emeralds. However the real ones lack energy so you will have to drain these. "The agent nodded and placed Omega on the table before he picked up the first emerald.

Its red vibrant color just faded into nothing before he placed it back on the table. His ruby eyes scanned the blueprints as he finished the rest and almost gasped when he realized what it was.

"Inhibitor Rings." His ruby eyes left it and turned to the man who wore a cocky grin.

"Not only that." Eggman moved aside the first blueprint to show the rest.

"We have to upgrade you a bit Shadow the hedgehog."


End file.
